Trump will boost Russia sanctions after putting off Putin summit

Skylar Woodhouse, Bloomberg News on Oct 22, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. will announce a “substantial” new round of sanctions against Russia, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, signaling President Donald Trump is preparing to ratchet up pressure on Moscow a day after backing off plans for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the near future.

“We are going to either announce, after the close this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning, a substantial pickup in Russia sanctions,” Bessent told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. He didn’t specify what the new measures would entail.

Bessent’s remarks nonetheless marked yet another shift in tone for the White House, which has veered back and forth between renewed threats to Russia and offering a more accommodating stance. After speaking by phone with Putin last week, Trump said he believed Russia wanted to end the war with Ukraine and announced plans for another summit in the coming weeks.

Trump had also equivocated on a Senate plan to ramp up sanctions on Russia and declined to commit to sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. But on Tuesday, the White House said there were no immediate plans for Trump and Putin to meet, and also backed off a planned meeting between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In Ukraine, Russia launched launched multiple drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, killing at least seven civilians including children in the early hours of Wednesday. Russia continues to ramp up its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with Kyiv attempting to respond by targeting refineries.

The Russian strikes came after Ukraine used UK-provided long-range Storm Shadow missiles to strike a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk, around 100 km (62 miles) from the border with Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the move followed a decision by the Trump administration to lift restrictions on long-range strikes.

The Journal said that shift was made before a meeting last week when Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to Washington to persuade Trump to send Ukraine Tomahawk missiles and other support.

Trump denied the Journal report in a social-media post on Wednesday, calling it “FAKE NEWS!”

“The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them,” Trump wrote.

It’s unclear what new restrictions the U.S. could announce that would change Putin’s calculus after more than three years of war and successive rounds of sanctions, export controls and other punishments against the Russian economy and military. Senate leaders have floated a fresh sanctions package but have been waiting for Trump’s approval to proceed.

“It will be the first signal from the Trump administration through action as opposed to rhetoric” that the U.S. expects other countries including China and India to stop buying Russian oil, according to Jeremy Paner, a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP

“Once the summit in Hungary was called off, Trump likely feels like he lost his leverage so he feels like this would further get Putin’s attention — but in the end it all comes down to the Chinese and Indian response,” Paner said.

Separately, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday backed a bill that grants the U.S. authority to use billions of dollars of Russian sovereign assets, throwing Republican support behind a widely-debated move that could significantly pressure Moscow over its war on Ukraine. The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

The U.S. has so far held back on efforts to expand the use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, even as its been supportive of Europe doing so, especially to buy U.S. weapons for Kyiv. The vast majority of the €280 billion of frozen Russian assets are held in Europe, mostly at Belgium’s Euroclear.

The U.S. may also be coordinating the timing of a sanctions announcement with the European Union, which is meant to announce a new sanctions package on Thursday that’s set to include an import ban on liquefied natural gas. The package aims to further starve Moscow of energy revenue and pressure Putin into negotiations.

It bans liquefied natural gas imports from January 2027, a year earlier than initially planned, and targets Russian banks, lenders in Central Asia and several crypto exchanges.

Trump has repeatedly threatened new punishment against Russia, but has largely held off. His patience may again be wearing thin after a summit with Putin in Alaska produced little progress. He had even acknowledged Putin might be stalling for time by agreeing to another meeting.

On Tuesday, Trump said he did not want to have “a wasted meeting” with Putin. “I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens,” he said.

Trump said he still retained hope for a ceasefire, but offered a largely downbeat appraisal of the conflict, a signal that his hopes for a quick resolution to the conflict may be dimming.

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With assistance from Natalia Drozdiak and Magdalena Del Valle.

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