The United States hit Russia's major oil companies with sanctions on Wednesday and accused the Russians of a lack of commitment toward ending the war in Ukraine, as Moscow conducted a major training exercise involving nuclear arms.
Reuters
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced new sanctions Wednesday against Russia’s two biggest oil companies and blasted Moscow’s refusal to end its “senseless war” as U.S.-led efforts to end the war floundered and the Ukrainian President sought more foreign military help.
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as dozens of subsidiaries, followed months of bipartisan pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Mr. Bessent said in a statement. Given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine.”
Mr. Bessent said the Treasury Department was prepared to take further action if necessary to support Mr. Trump’s effort to end the war. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
Mr. Bessent made the comments as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte was in Washington for talks with Mr. Trump. The military alliance has been co-ordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.
The announcement came after Russian drones and missiles blasted sites across Ukraine, killing at least six people, including a woman and her two young daughters.
The attack came in waves from Tuesday night into Wednesday 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-old and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk said.
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At least 29 people, including five children, were wounded in Kyiv, which appeared to be the main target, authorities said.
Russian drones also hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, later Wednesday when children were in the building, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. One person was killed and six were hurt, but no children were physically harmed, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said many of the children were in shock. He said the attack targeted 10 separate regions: Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy and Sumy.
Rosneft's Russian-flagged crude oil tanker Vladimir Monomakh transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, July, 2023.Yoruk Isik/Reuters
Russia fired 405 strike and decoy drones and 28 missiles, mainly targeting Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said.
Mr. Trump’s efforts to end the war that started with Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour more than three years ago have failed to gain traction. Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Mr. Putin’s refusal to budge from his conditions for a settlement after Ukraine offered a ceasefire and direct peace talks.
Mr. Trump said Tuesday that his plan for a swift meeting with Mr. Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.” European leaders accused Mr. Putin of stalling.
Mr. Zelensky said Wednesday that Mr. Trump’s proposal to freeze the conflict where it stands on the front line “was a good compromise” – a step that could pave the way for negotiations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the planned summit requires careful preparation, suggesting that laying the groundwork could be protracted. “No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” he said.
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In what appeared to be a public reminder of Russian atomic arsenals, Mr. Putin on Wednesday directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces.
Mr. Zelensky urged the European Union, the United States and the Group of Seven industrialized nations to force Russia to the negotiating table. Pressure can be applied on Moscow “only through sanctions, long-range (missile) capabilities and co-ordinated diplomacy among all our partners,” he said.
More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed Thursday at an EU summit in Brussels. On Friday, a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing – a group of 35 countries that support Ukraine – is set to take place in London.
Mr. Zelensky credited Mr. Trump’s remarks that he was considering supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for Mr. Putin’s willingness to meet. The American President later said he was wary of tapping into the U.S. supply of Tomahawks over concerns about available stocks.
Russia has not made significant progress on the battlefield, where a war of attrition has taken a high toll on Russian infantry and Ukraine is short of manpower, military analysts say. Both sides have invested in long-range strike capabilities to hit rear areas.
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The Ukrainian army’s general staff said its forces struck a chemical plant Tuesday night in Russia’s Bryansk region using British-made air-launched Storm Shadow missiles. The plant is an important part of the Russian military and industrial complex, producing gunpowder, explosives, missile fuel and ammunition, it said.
Russian officials in the region confirmed an attack but did not mention the plant.
Ukraine also claimed overnight strikes on the Saransk mechanical plant in Mordovia, Russia, which produces components for ammunition and mines, and the Makhachkala oil refinery in the Dagestan republic of Russia.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defences downed 33 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, including the area around St. Petersburg. Eight airports temporarily suspended flights because of the attacks.
In other developments, Mr. Zelensky arrived Wednesday in Oslo, Norway, and after that flew to Stockholm, where he and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson signed an agreement exploring the possibility of Ukraine buying up to 150 Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets over the next decade or more. Ukraine has already received American-made F-16s and French Mirages.
Residents look through the broken windows of a residential building damaged by a massive drone and missile strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, on Wednesday.GENYA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images
Moscow’s overnight attack also targeted energy infrastructure and caused rolling blackouts, officials said. Russia has been trying to cripple the country’s power grid before winter sets in.
“We heard a loud explosion and then the glass started to shatter, and then everything was caught up in a burst of fire. The embers were everywhere,” Olena Biriukova, who lives in a Kyiv apartment building, told the Associated Press.
“It was very scary for kids,” she said.
Two people were found dead in the Dnipro district of the Ukrainian capital, where emergency services rescued 10 people after a fire caused by drone debris hit the sixth floor of a 16-story residential building, local authorities said.
And in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, emergency services responded after drone debris hit a 17-storey apartment block, causing a fire on five floors. Fifteen people were rescued, including two children.