US could hit Russia with more sanctions to end Ukraine war

US President Donald Trump's administration has prepared additional sanctions it could use to target key areas of Russia's economy if President Vladimir Putin continues to delay ending Moscow's war in Ukraine, according to a US official and another person familiar with the matter, Report informs via Reuters.

US officials have also told European counterparts that they support the EU using frozen Russian assets to buy US weapons for Kyiv, and Washington has held nascent internal conversations about leveraging Russian assets held in the US to support Ukraine's war effort, two US officials said.

While it is not clear whether Washington will actually carry out any of those moves in the immediate term, it shows 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.

Trump has positioned himself as a global peacemaker, but has admitted that trying to end Russia's more-than-three-year war in neighboring Ukraine has proven harder than he had anticipated.

European allies - buffeted by Trump's swings between accommodation and anger toward Putin - hope he keeps upping the pressure on Moscow, and are also mulling major actions of their own.

One senior US official told Reuters that he would like to see European allies make the next big Russia move, which could be additional sanctions or tariffs.

A separate source with knowledge of internal administration dynamics said Trump was likely to hit pause for a few weeks and gauge Russia's reaction to Wednesday's sanctions announcement.

Those sanctions took aim at oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft. The moves spiked oil prices by more than $2 and sent major Chinese and Indian buyers of Russian crude looking for alternatives.