Days after canceling a planned summit with Putin, citing a lack of progress toward ending the war in Ukraine, Trump took a major step by effectively blacklisting Rosneft and Lukoil.

The German government is racing to secure exemptions from US sanctions targeting Russia’s oil company Rosneft, which still owns three refineries in Germany that have been placed under state administration.

Trump's sanctions come as the EU agreed to impose new measures targeting Moscow's oil and gas revenues, which together are likely to maintain economic pressure on Russia despite Trump's faltering peace push and an escalation of the Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine.

President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Russia's largest oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil while canceling his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. President Donald Trump has done a turnaround on sanctions against Russia, taking aim at Russia's two biggest oil companies and the billions of dollars they reap for Moscow's war against Ukraine.

The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow, to comply with the U.S. sanctions imposed over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.