Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday night blocking several Russia sanctions that Congress had passed and Trump himself signed into law in September, citing US "national interest" as the justification two days before the penalties were scheduled to take effect.
The sanctions law gave Trump authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on imports from major purchasers of Russian oil and gas, particularly China and India. It also targeted senior Russian officials including Vladimir Putin, Russian financial institutions, and Russia's "shadow fleet" of vessels used to evade existing embargoes. Trump has now waived many of these provisions.
The move deepened an already strained relationship between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky said it was unfortunate the US decided to "completely disregard" the sanctions and that they "could have helped enormously" in pressuring Russia to end the war. He stressed that Russia was conducting overnight strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as winter approaches, and said the sanctions were "supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end."
The tensions stem partly from Trump's controversial decision last week to temporarily suspend some sanctions to import Russian diesel in an effort to lower US energy prices. Zelensky suggested this amounted to the US investing in Russia's war effort. Trump later claimed both Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an "energy ceasefire," but Kyiv said it would only halt strikes if Russia did the same. After three days of fresh Russian attacks, Ukraine resumed strikes on Russian oil refineries, prompting Trump to call the strikes a "disgrace."
Trump and Zelensky have exchanged sharp criticism. Zelensky told EU leaders it was nice to be among "real leaders," after Trump said Zelensky was "more difficult to deal with" than Putin. Zelensky later told reporters he believed Trump would lift additional sanctions against Russia.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev called the waiver "an important and truly historic moment," saying the sanctions would have caused "serious damage" to US and global markets.
Democratic lawmakers condemned the move. Virginia Congressman Don Beyer wrote on X that Trump's action "betrays our Ukrainian partners and defies clear congressional intent" and accused him of "surrender to Putin."
Tensions have also escalated over Starlink restrictions. Zelensky said Ukraine was told US officials attributed speed slowdowns to technical issues, but Ukraine tested the system on EU territory and found no such problems. Trump has denied deliberately slowing Ukraine's access to the satellite network.