U.S. Senators Criticize Trump Over Delay in New Sanctions Against Russia — Reuters

Two influential Democrats in the U.S. Senate have reached out to officials in Donald Trump’s administration regarding the lack of new sanctions against Russia. According to them, no restrictions have been imposed on Moscow for 17 months.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator Christopher Coons sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

They noted that targeted sanctions against those who help Russia circumvent restrictions have not been imposed for 17 months.

The last time the U.S. imposed a large-scale package of sanctions against Russia was in October 2025. At that time, the U.S. Treasury Department added the Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil to its sanctions list.

The senators believe that this move was an exception rather than the beginning of a systematic policy, and that Moscow continues to find ways to circumvent the sanctions.

In response, the U.S. Treasury Department reiterated the sanctions against Russian oil companies and stated that the Trump administration will continue to act in the interests of U.S. national security and the pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine.

The State Department, meanwhile, noted that it does not comment on possible future sanctions decisions.

Warren and Kuns also cited Bessent’s remarks made during his testimony before Congress in February.

At that time, the Treasury Secretary explained the pause in sanctions by the need to first see how peace talks would unfold. At the same time, the U.S. administration continued to impose restrictions on Iran and Cuba during this period, despite negotiations with those countries.

The senators also recalled Rubio’s statement from May, when he acknowledged that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were not yielding results and, at that time, were effectively not taking place.

Warren and Kuns noted that from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 until Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency in January 2025, Washington had imposed 111 rounds of sanctions against Russia.

The senators asked Rubio and Bessent to explain by August 28 why Washington had not resumed the regular imposition of sanctions against Russia, given that the negotiation process—which had been the reason for the pause—had effectively stalled several months earlier.

In their view, new restrictions could strengthen the U.S. position in its efforts to secure a just peace for Ukraine.

This was reported with reference to Reuters.

Trump was secretly transferred to another plane in Ankara due to the threat of a MANPADS attack, according to CNN.

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained aboard the decoy plane in Turkey after President Donald Trump secretly left it and boarded another military aircraft, the BBC reports.