By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is ready to move to a second phase of sanctioning Russia, the closest he has come to suggesting he is on the verge of ramping up sanctions against Moscow or its oil buyers over the war in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly threatened Moscow with further sanctions but withheld them as he pursued peace talks.
The latest comments suggest an increasingly aggressive posture, but Trump stopped short of saying he was committed to such a decision or what a second phase might entail.
Asked by a reporter at the White House if he is ready to move to “the second phase” of sanctions against Russia, Trump responded, “Yeah, I am.” He did not elaborate.
Trump has been frustrated by his inability to bring a halt to the fighting after he initially predicted he would be able to end the war in Ukraine swiftly when he took office in January.
The White House did not immediately respond to an email on Sunday seeking comment about what steps Trump was contemplating.
The exchange was a follow-up to Trump’s comments on Wednesday defending the actions he had taken already on Russia, including imposing punitive tariffs on India’s U.S.-bound exports last month.
India is a major buyer of Russia’s energy exports, while Western buyers have cut back in response to the war.
“That cost hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia,” Trump said on Wednesday. “You call that no action? And I haven’t done phase two yet or phase three.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that the U.S. and the European Union could heap “secondary tariffs on the countries that buy Russian oil,” pushing the Russian economy to the brink of collapse and bringing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
China is a major buyer of Russian energy exports.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Writing by Ted Hesson; Editing by Ross Colvin, Lisa Shumaker and Matthew Lewis)
