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US president said he has good conversations with his Moscow counterpart but they ‘just don’t go anywhere’
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Donald Trump has unleashed new sanctions on two of Russia’s largest oil companies, the first such measures since he began his second term as US president.
The Treasury Department said it was sanctioning Rosneft and Lukoil in response to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war”.
In a statement, the department lashed out at Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
It said the sanctions would “increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy”.
The decision came after Trump had cancelled a planned meeting with Putin, telling reporters on Wednesday that it “just didn’t feel right to me”. “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” he said.
EU commission president Ursula Von der Leyen also said she had spoken to US treasury secretary Scott Bessent about “Russia’s lack of commitment to the peace process”.
The US Treasury says in its press release that the sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, were “a result of Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
It said they would both increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy.
In a statement, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said: “Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire.
“Given president Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine
.”Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President [Donald] Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine yesterday, including a strike on a kindergarten, showed that Vladimir Putin “clearly doesn’t feel enough pressure to stop prolonging the war”.
At least six people were killed as Russia unleashed a broad attack that hit Ukrainian power plants, a kindergarten and other sites.
Mr Zelensky shared a video that showed chaos and fear in the northeastern city of Kharkiv after a Russian drone strike hit a kindergarten. Emergency workers and distraught parents were seen clutching their children as they flee through smoke and debris.
Three drones hit the kindergarten, causing a part of the school’s second floor had collapse.
Officials confirmed that all 48 children inside had been moved to an underground shelter. The frightened children were seen desperately clutching the shoulders of firemen rescuing them from the flames.
“Clearly, Russia is growing more brazen. These strikes are Russia’s spit in the face to everyone who insists on a peaceful resolution,” Zelensky said on X.
US president Donald Trump, ahead of his meeting next week with his Chinese counterpart in South Korea, has pressed on Xi Jinping to end the war in Ukraine.
Mr Trump said he would like to see Mr Xi use his influence on Russia’s Vladimir Putin to halt the fighting in Ukraine. Mr Xi and Mr Putin have forged an increasingly close strategic alliance between their countries.
Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he planned to discuss China’s purchases of Russian oil and how to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its third year.
“What I’ll really be talking to him about is how do we end the war with Russia and Ukraine, whether it’s through oil or energy or anything else. And I think he’s going to be very receptive.”
“He would now like – I’m not sure that he did at the beginning – he would now like that war to end,” Mr Trump said, referring to Mr Xi.
Sweden has signed a letter of intent to export up to 150 of its domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Wednesday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The two leaders met for talks in Linkoping in southern Sweden and visited Saab, which is the maker of the JAS 39 Gripen fighter and other equipment.
Kristersson told a news conference the two countries had signed a long-term cooperation agreement over air defences that included the possibility of exporting 100-150 newly produced Gripen E fighter jets.
“We fully realise it’s a long road ahead of us,” Kristersson said with a Gripen in Swedish livery in the background.
“But from today we are committed to exploring all the possibilities in providing Ukraine with a large amount of Gripen fighters in the future.”
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky signed a letter of intent to export up to 150 of Saab’s Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine after talks in Linkoping, in southern Sweden, where the jets are produced.
Gripen is a fourth-generation light single-engine supersonic fighter jet. It is a so-called multi-role fighter aircraft, designed for missions such as air-to-air combat, aerial bombing and reconnaissance.
It is seen as a solid low-cost alternative to the more expensive fifth-generation planes, such as the F-35. Gripen, Swedish for the mythical creature Griffin, has been in commission since 1996 but has been upgraded several times. The first plane of the latest version, Gripen E, was delivered to the Swedish Air Force in October.
In total, more than 280 Gripens have been manufactured.
Swedish media said Gripens were used in direct combat for the first time this year, when Thailand deployed fighter jets in confrontations with Cambodia.
Prior to that, the Gripen has mainly been used for air policing and was deployed to Poland in 2025 as part of a Nato mission to patrol allied airspace. It was also used to enforce the Nato no-fly zone in Libya in 2014.
The intended summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold on Wednesday after Moscow refused to budge on its red lines for ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump said on Tuesday that he did not want to have a “wasted meeting” with Putin after officials concluded that the gap between the two sides was two big to begin negotiations.
A senior White House official told Reuters that there are “no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future”. It comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a “productive call” but opted against an in-person meeting.
Read our full explainer below.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a letter of intent to export up to 150 of Saab’s Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine.
Gripen is a fourth generation light single-engine supersonic fighter jet. It is a so-called multi-role fighter aircraft, designed for missions such as air-to-air combat, aerial bombing and reconnaissance.
It is seen as a solid low-cost alternative to the more expensive fifth generation planes, such as the F-35.
Gripen, Swedish for the mythical creature Griffin, has been in commission since 1996 but has been upgraded several times.
The first plane of the latest version, Gripen E, was delivered to the Swedish Air Force in October. In total more than 280 Gripens have been manufactured.
Russian drones and missiles blasted sites across Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least six people, but the Kremlin sought to revive hopes of another summit with Donald Trump after Washington appeared to put the plan on hold.
The attacks came in waves and targeted at least eight Ukrainian cities as well as a village in the region of the capital, Kyiv, where a strike set fire to a house in which the mother and her six-month and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk said
Russian drones also hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv. One person was killed and six were hurt, but no children were harmed.
James C. Reynolds reports:
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