US supports EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to make weapons in Ukraine, considers similar measures at home
Plastic letters arranged to read “Sanctions” are placed in front of the colors of the flags of the United States and Russia in this illustration taken February 28, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has prepared additional sanctions it could use to target key areas of the Russian economy if President Vladimir Putin continues to delay an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter.
U.S. officials have also told their European counterparts that they support the EU’s use of frozen Russian assets to buy U.S. weapons for kyiv, and Washington has had nascent internal discussions about using Russian assets held in the United States to support Ukraine’s war effort, two U.S. officials said.
While it is unclear whether Washington will actually implement any of these measures immediately, it shows that there is a well-developed toolkit within the administration to up the ante further after Trump imposed sanctions on Russia on Wednesday for the first time since returning to office in January.
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Trump has positioned himself as a global peacemaker but admitted that trying to end Russia’s more than three-year-old war in neighboring Ukraine has proven more difficult than he expected.
European allies — rattled by Trump’s swings between accommodation and anger toward Putin — hope he will continue to increase pressure on Moscow and are also considering their own major actions.
A senior U.S. official told Reuters he would like to see European allies make the next big Russian move, which could come in the form of additional sanctions or tariffs. Another source familiar with internal administration dynamics said Trump was likely to take a break for a few weeks to gauge Russia’s reaction to Wednesday’s sanctions announcement.
These sanctions targeted the oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft. The moves sent oil prices up more than $2 and pushed major Chinese and Indian buyers of Russian crude to look for alternatives.
Banking sector, oil infrastructure
Some of the additional sanctions prepared by the United States target Russia’s banking sector and infrastructure used to move oil to market, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter said.
Last week, Ukrainian officials proposed new sanctions measures to the United States, a source familiar with those conversations said. Among the specific ideas put forward were measures to exclude all Russian banks from the dollar-based system with their U.S. counterparts, two sources said. However, it is unclear how seriously Ukraine’s specific requests are being taken into consideration.
The U.S. Senate is also taking action, with some lawmakers renewing efforts to pass a long-stalled bipartisan sanctions bill.
The person familiar with internal administration dynamics said Trump was willing to approve the package. The source, however, warned that such approval was unlikely this month.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said Friday he believes his country, the United States and Ukraine are close to a diplomatic solution to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Halyna Yusypiuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, said the recent sanctions decision was appreciated, but had no further comment.
“Dismantling the Russian war machine is the most humane way to end this war,” Yusypiuk wrote in an email.
A week of boost
Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia ended a tumultuous week regarding the Ukrainian administration’s policies.
Trump spoke with Putin last week, then announced that the two planned to meet in Budapest, catching Ukraine off guard.
A day later, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Washington, where U.S. officials pressed Zelenskiy to cede territory in the Donbas region as part of an unbalanced land swap aimed at ending the war. Zelenskiy backed down and Trump left the meeting with the position that the conflict should be frozen on his front lines.
Then, last weekend, Russia sent a diplomatic note to Washington reiterating previous peace terms. Days later, Trump told reporters that the planned meeting with Putin had been canceled because “it just didn’t feel right.”
Speaking to CNN on Friday after arriving in Washington for talks with US officials, Dmitriev said the meeting between Trump and Putin had not been canceled, as the US president described it, and that the two leaders would likely meet at a later date.
Two U.S. officials have said privately that, in retrospect, Trump’s aborted plan to meet with Putin was likely the product of irrational exuberance. After reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, these officials said, Trump overestimated the extent to which he could use the momentum of one diplomatic success to negotiate another.
Trump ultimately decided to impose sanctions on Russia during a meeting Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a senior White House official said.
American pressure on Europe
Behind the scenes, Ukraine apparently received a U.S. boost after the U.S. approval process for providing targeting data for long-range Ukrainian strikes in Russia was moved from the Pentagon in Washington to the U.S. European Command in Germany — seen by U.S. and European officials as more hawkish toward Russia — from the Pentagon to Washington, according to an American and European official.
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However, Trump said he was still not ready to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, as kyiv has requested.
The United States is also putting pressure on Europe to further tighten the financial screws on Moscow. By announcing the US sanctions, Bessent pushed the EU to follow. Broadly speaking, U.S. officials have criticized EU and NATO countries for not taking more decisive steps to stand up to Russia.
However, it will be more difficult for the EU than for the United States to impose full blocking sanctions on Lukoil, a senior EU official argued, given Lukoil’s considerable involvement in the European economy. The oil company has refineries in Bulgaria and Romania and has a strong network of gas stations across the continent.
“I think we need to find a way to disengage (…) before we can fully sanction,” said the European official.
