The EU’s most senior sanctions envoy is holding talks in Washington with US officials after Donald Trump said he was ready to take further action against Russia over the war in Ukraine.
David O’Sullivan, the EU sanctions envoy, is meeting US counterparts on Monday, as Europe and the US look for tougher measures to weaken Vladimir Putin’s war machine after Russia launched its largest-ever air attack on Ukraine over the weekend.
Ahead of those meetings, the head of the European Council, António Costa, hailed transatlantic cooperation over sanctions against Russia and said it was clear that the US remained engaged in supporting Ukraine.
A European Commission spokesperson also confirmed that the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke to the US vice-president, JD Vance, over the phone on Friday, and “the only topic during the call was Ukraine”.
Asked by a reporter at the White House on Sunday if he was ready to move to “the second phase” of sanctions against Russia, Trump responded: “Yeah I am”, without elaborating.
Trump also said that “certain European leaders are coming over to our country on Monday or Tuesday individually” and that he would speak to the Russian president soon.
Trump has previously threatened tougher measures against Putin, but each time has allowed deadlines to pass without action.
Speaking in Helsinki on Monday, Costa said that the EU and US were “coordinating our efforts to align our sanctions, to be more effective” and to increase pressure on Putin to join peace negotiations with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He said the EU needed to increase sanctions on Russia, “but also secondary sanctions” on countries buying gas and oil from Russia.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, condemned Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, “which show further escalation” a German government spokesperson said on Monday. The spokesperson also said Germany would welcome the US joining Europe in pushing for more sanctions against Russia.
Over the weekend, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, suggested the US and EU could impose tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil. Bessent said the US was preparing to increase pressure on Russia and urged Europe to do more: “We need our European partners to follow us, because if the US and EU can do this together … we are in a race now between how long the Ukrainian military hold up versus how long can the Russian economy hold up.”
The Trump administration has imposed 50% tariffs on goods from India in response to its purchases of discounted Russian oil, but declined to take such punitive action against other large buyers of Russian energy, such as China.
The issue of secondary sanctions – which would apply penalties to third countries that trade with Russia – could be difficult for the EU, which is racing to sign new trade deals, including with India, by the end of the year, to counter Trump’s tariffs that are roiling international relations.
The US focus on Russian energy also puts an uncomfortable spotlight on Hungary and Slovakia, which have resisted EU plans to phase out Russian fossil fuels. The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, favour Trump’s agenda, but are also friendly to Putin and have attacked EU plans to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2028.
The US energy secretary, Christ Wright, told the Financial Times that if Europe ceased to buy Russian fossil fuels that would “absolutely” have a positive influence on the US adopting more aggressive sanctions against Russia. The EU has pledged to buy $750bn of US oil, gas and nuclear products by 2028.
The EU has approved 18 rounds of sanctions against Russia since the full-scale invasion of February 2022, with further proposals expected in the coming days.
The last set of EU sanctions, agreed in July, lowered the price cap on Russian oil, closed loopholes to reduce trade in Russian petroleum products and banned vessels carrying Russian energy from European ports.
Speaking alongside Costa, Finland’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said cooperation with the US on sanctions was crucial. The latest attacks on Ukraine showed, he said, “that Putin will not stop killing, he will not go to the negotiation tables. That is why we have to cooperate with and negotiate with the US to find a way to do more sanctions, stronger sanctions, do more military support to Ukraine, and build security arrangements to Ukraine.”
On Sunday Russia launched its largest-ever barrage on Ukraine, setting the main government building in Kyiv on fire, and killing at least four people, including a mother and her baby.
Zelenskyy said Putin was testing the world to see “whether they will accept or tolerate this” and he urged Ukraine’s allies to impose more sanctions and “tough tariffs” on Russia.
The Kremlin said on Monday that no sanctions would ever force Russia to change course on Ukraine.
Europe and Ukraine are doing everything they can to draw the US into their orbit, said the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov.
