US Treasury chief ties new Russia sanctions to progress in Ukraine peace talks
Washington will decide whether to impose new sanctions against Russia based on progress in peace talks on Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Feb. 5 at a Senate committee hearing.
Bessent said the U.S. would take "under consideration" additional measures targeting Russia's so-called shadow fleet, a step President Donald Trump has not taken since returning to office.
"We will see where the peace talks go," Bessent added.
The remarks came as Ukrainian, Russian, and U.S. officials remain engaged in renewed diplomacy, which all sides have described as constructive, though no breakthrough has been reported.
The most recent round of talks took place in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 4–5, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said the next trilateral meeting would happen "in the near future."
Bessent was part of the U.S. delegation at talks with Russia in Miami on Jan. 31. He pointed to earlier U.S. sanctions on Russian energy companies as evidence of Washington's leverage, calling them a "major sanctions achievement."
The United States sanctioned Russian energy giant Lukoil and another major oil company, Rosneft, in October, freezing Lukoil's U.S.-based assets and threatening secondary penalties for foreign entities that continue doing business with the firms.
Bessent said those measures helped push Moscow toward negotiations.
A White House official told the Kyiv Independent that U.S. agencies have been instructed to prepare sanctions policy options for the president, while stressing that the final decision rests with Trump.
As diplomatic efforts continue, Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, damaging power facilities across the country in what is widely seen as an attempt to pressure Kyiv into accepting Moscow's maximalist demands in peace talks.
