The United States is preparing a new round of sanctions targeting Russia's energy sector if President Vladimir Putin rejects a peace agreement with Ukraine, Bloomberg reports citing sources familiar with the matter.
The measures under consideration include targeting vessels in Russia's shadow fleet of tankers used to transport oil, as well as traders who facilitate these transactions, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new sanctions could be announced as early as this week, some sources said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed these plans during a meeting with European ambassadors earlier this week. "President Trump is the President of Peace, and I reiterated that under his leadership, America will continue to prioritize ending the war in Ukraine," Bessent wrote on X following the meeting.
Sources cautioned that the final decision rests with President Donald Trump.
The Kremlin is aware of the potential sanctions, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, according to Interfax. "It's obvious that any sanctions are harmful for the process of rebuilding relations," he said.
Oil prices briefly rose following the news. Brent futures advanced as much as 70 cents a barrel to trade as high as $60.33 before paring gains.
The discussions come as US and Ukrainian negotiators made progress this week toward terms of a potential peace accord. US envoy Steve Witkoff spent two days in Berlin for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
US, Ukrainian and European officials highlighted significant progress on US-backed security guarantees for post-war Ukraine.
However, sticking points remain over the future status of territories in eastern Ukraine, the use of frozen Russian central bank assets, and management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, sources said. Kyiv wants written commitments specifying what allies would do if Russia re-invades.
Russia has demanded Ukraine cede areas of the Donbas, including Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. US proposals have suggested turning unoccupied areas into a demilitarized or free economic zone under special administration, though it remains unclear whether this land would be de facto recognized as Russian.
US officials view immobilized Russian assets as part of any future peace arrangement, sources said. European leaders are set to decide this week whether to tap frozen assets to provide military and economic aid to Ukraine. Moscow has reacted furiously to this prospect.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told ABC News he's "very much confident" the war is nearing an end, though Moscow's territorial demands remain unchanged.
Ryabkov ruled out deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine under a peace accord.
Sanctions imposed since Russia's 2022 invasion haven't changed Putin's calculus, though measures targeting oil majors have seen crude prices plummet to their lowest levels since the invasion began. Brent futures are down 20% this year.
The US has already sanctioned four top Russian producers and, along with other G7 nations, hundreds of tankers transporting Moscow's oil.
Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, held five hours of talks with Putin at the Kremlin on 2 December.
Zelenskyy said on 15 December he has an agreement with the US to make security guarantees legally binding through a congressional vote as part of any deal to end the war.
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