Public sentiment regarding the US sanctions on Russian oil reflects deep skepticism and frustration, particularly towards India's alignment with these sanctions. Commenters largely view India's capitulation to US pressures as a betrayal of its long-standing relationship with Russia, fearing economic repercussions and higher energy prices. There is a pervasive belief that the sanctions are largely ineffective and self-serving, undermining genuine efforts for peace in Ukraine while raising questions about the ethical implications of supporting Russia amidst the conflict.

India

Russia

This submission from bbc.com is behind a dynamic paywall and may be unavailable in the United States. On the 26th of June 2025, the BBC implemented a dynamic paywall on [its website](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2vgkn7w10o). Articles posted to /r/worldnews should be accessible to everyone.

*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/worldnews) if you have any questions or concerns.*

AutoModerator

Top_Range_3211

I think all US news should be withheld for 8 days in case Orange Ass changes his mind.

Fiery_Hand

About 35–40% of Russia’s refining capacity is idle due to drone strikes. This seems to work better...

RTgoods

In line with other commentators, it seems to me incomprehensible that it has taken over three years, numerous disgraceful attacks directed against defenceless civilian targets in Ukraine by Russia and the continuing murder of the innocent to make this happen.

 What else is available to the West and is just not used? Frozen enemy assets sitting in banks not being used against the aggressor, that's one of them.

Puzzleheaded-Car3562

Mgnickel

How long before he walks these ones back, too?

AmethystWind

Probably because Russia’s refineries were bombed and don’t even have enough for themselves. By saying sanctions just to make GOP look better.

Fossile

Sanctions can be evaded. 

Tomahawks can’t.

yzerman88

Even though we aren't sending missiles to Ukraine and told Zelensky that he should give all the occupied territory to Russia?

The only thing our pathetic shithole joke of a country is consistent about is how unreliable we are. It's embarrassing living here.

MyAccountWasBanned7

They blew up a Kindergarten in Ukraine today and we are going to sanction them.  Just. Wow.

Excellent-Vanilla486

Distraction to look like he’s doing something while telling Ukraine to concede their land.
Trump won’t sanction shit. Putin is his handler.

BaneOfMyLife

AdventurousLet548

Why do I feel like this is only being done now because Russia isn’t as affected since Ukraine has been blowing up their refineries so much. Feels like a bandwagon thing to try and win back some support

ProjectPorygon

Sanctions? I thought we stopped trading with Russia?

Muffafuffin

Old-n-Wrinkly

enough of this shit. russia just targeted a kindergarten. no fly zone now. if you let ukraine lose you're just gonna end up in this position again anyway, only the conditions will be far worse. take some fucking real action.

thedeadsuit

Moral of the story, kids: Trump eventually betrays everyone.

otter-poppers

They have worse tariffs on Canada then Russia Lol

james-HIMself

The new ballroom will have Epstein's name on it

mick601

Uh-oh. Time for Pooty to make a phone call to Trumpy and end this right now. /s

CharcoalGreyWolf

DoomScrollin666

\*yawn\*  Meaningless and probably a lie anyway.

shep2105

RaidersGunz

Hate to give Trump credit, but this is a very good move (that should've come much sooner, i.e. under Biden). Secondary sanctions will bite hard and hopefully erode Russia's relations to India and other semi-allies.

filio111

US does thing that Europe doesn’t and people still manage to complain. I swear Trump could drop a nuke on the Kremlin and people would say he’s a puppet. There’s plenty of criticism but Jesus

DankeSebVettel

Why didn't Biden already do this?

Why didn't Biden provide Tomahawk's for the whole duration of his presidency?

Substantial_Pilot699

Ok serious question before I read down - why was this not done before? Why are we tariffing India for doing exact same thing? I am genuinely confused- why wasn’t this done years ago?

NotRude_juatwow

CommitteeStatus

Yeah yea we have heard this broke record over and over

denn1959-Public_396

One call to dotard Donnie from vladdy daddy and that will be the end of any perceived sanctions on Russia.

TemporarySolution572

Putin has the Epstein tapes. Trump knows this and won't do anything of consequence. War could've been over months ago if we gave Ukraine tomahawks and let them take care of business. But we didn't and we won't bc he wants Putin to win or stop. Release the Epstein files and let's take care of the pedo problem.

GameGreek

AFTER the Ukrainians did all the work and damaged the refineries causing massive disruptions.

Spiritual_Room6833

It doesn’t matter as long as China and India are still buying from Russia.

BlueyedIrush

 Time to write some spicy Trump/Putin fanfics. 👌

pcp1301990

How many days do we give him before he U-turns again?

FeherDenes

Spoiler: The economic pain is not a proportional response and therefore will not disincentivize further aggression.

lowercasejames

baitshetlo

Sanctions are ineffective when China supplies everything and buys their shit.

Jey3349

Arent the Americans the ones who pay for the sanctions? Genuine question sorry if it sounds dumb

WaveCandid906

You can tell how meaningless this is by the White House's comment that these factions are pretty hefty.

Icy_Armadillo_6999

Why were refineries bombed in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia? Part of the sanctions package?

Much_Chef2704

Are they still able to export with a large part of the refineries on fire?

UnhappyWalrus3570

That’ll teach Putin to never ghost Trump on a Budapest rendezvous again.

Witty-Emu7741

How is he going to TACO on this one?

Anyone want to offer some guesses?

Coupe368

*Sanctions* to be believed only when weapons are delivered to Ukraine

Astigi

The fact this isn’t bigger news on this site should tell you all you need to know about this site and the personnel who use it.

BlueberryMuffin8462

Smoke and mirrors. Trump already got a good fuckin from master putin last week. 

Pathetic. America has fallen.

ballarn123

"I just felt it was time." What a stupid ass. And Biden apparently didn't feel it was time. Only now are we at the 19th level of sanctions. This will go down in history as winning the Neville Chamberlain Award for Depraved Neglect.

borninthewaitingroom

The war has been going on for over two years. And this is happening now?  Ridiculous

Designer_Buy_1650

US keeps announcing things, but does nothing.

mariusherea

Infinite_Respect_

They'll just continue selling it to China and India etc

Special-Audience-426

Friendly_Trouble_916

So FACO? Fuck Around Chicken Out?

This is going to last as long as the Tomahawk misses going to Ukraine.

Trump and sugar Vladdy are on the phone every night whispering sweet nothings to each other to try and distract the world of the gutting of America, Trump's pedophelia with the release of the Epstein files.

Mother_Resident_890

They’re bullshit

On paper China isn’t buying Russian oil anyways, the oil is essentially being rebranded as Malaysian oil and that’s what China is importing

Truthfully, I think it’s words with no substance

fyordian

The sanctions were generally designed to keep Russian oil on the market, but had to comply with price caps if transactions passed through any western banks and institutions. India in particular was taking advantage of this by getting their oil at a massive discount.


The idea was to not disrupt the oil market, but make sure Russia took a financial hit.


Now any kind of Russian oil purchase could mean sanctions and penalties.

FencyMcFenceFace

Not all oil was sanctioned by the West. Several oil&amp;gas projects in Russia are sanctioned, some companies are (Gazprom and Surgutneftegaz back in January 2025, Lukoil and Rosneft now), and G7 countries have decided to stop buying Russian fossils to various degrees. The US and Canada stopped Russian imports completely (they could afford to), but the EU and Japan still import a lot. 

There is also an oil price cap, meaning that it is prohibited for G7 shipping services (ships, insurance, brokerage, etc.) to be provided to ships selling Russian oil above a certain price. This waa designed to keep Russian crude on the marker so prices wouldn't go up too much, while denting its revenues. 

The new sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft simply restrict the ability of any American company to deal or trade with them in any way. Which means 3rd parties will need to be used, which potentially adds costs for Russia. But overall it is not a massive burden.

luka-sharaawy

Can’t believe a word the president says. Who could? Every thing he says is a lie or projection.

DryToe1269

It add a bit additional friction in the transactions.

dufutur

It's to hit China, major Russian oil importer, ahead of the trade talks while using the pretext of the war in ukraine

syylvo

Not much. Europe buys Russian oil through the shadow fleet, which is already circumventing previous sanctions the EU imposed on itself. The US' will to reprimand its allies for continuing to buy Russian oil is unclear anyways. 

For China and India, they can continue buying Russian oil from Rosneft and Lukoil. India will likely do it through private companies while officially showing that government owned refineries dont buy from Russia, which gives a symbolic win to the US while in reality private Indian refineries pick up the slack.

China is the more interesting player here because the US doesn't have any leverage over China that it could exercise without incurring massive damage to itself. There are innumerable ways for China to wreak economic devastation on the west, and it is fundamentally against China's interest to kowtow to western threats regardless of how trivial or extreme. Further, China has long been considering to voluntarily cut itself off of the SWIFT system in favor of their alternative CIPS which would defang western sanctions across the board anyway.

Novo-Russia

This is the reason for sanctions on Russia, Iran, Venezuela. USA fight for world wide energy dominance.

[https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-production-by-country](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/oil-production-by-country)

Look on this, USA constantly increase oil production from Obama time, meaning it need to push out other oil producers or, as minimum, take energy production under control of western corporations.

Here explanation for all western wars and sanctions. As USA empire getting weaker, there use of out of market competition - sanctions, tariffs, wars increase. War or regime change on Venezuela looming.

That mean it is very dangerous to submit to USA pressure, or country will become completely depended on USA.

GeologistOld1265

Naturally they need to be exempt. Germany put them under their own trusteeship and is the one running them now. Just because it officially still belongs to the russian company, doesnt change the fact that its a firmly German government controlled entity now. People which complain about this have no idea whats going on and that this is not Germany asking to let the russians continue to run them.

No-Confidence-9191

Constant-Internet133

An important detail not mentioned in the title:

These rafineries are in Germany.

Tricertops4

Jesus fucking Christ germany we’re almost 4 years in

Thisissocomplicated

They published the list already: [https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0290](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0290)

It's Rosneft and Lukoil and all their &gt;50%-owned subsidiaries.

This is going to be interesting as Lukoil has a couple of refineries in the EU, e.g. one in Romania (which just happened to experience a fire). The other one is in Bulgaria.

Rosneft has share in three in Germany, but &gt;50% only in the Schwedt one, and that is under trusteeship, so I'm not sure if it's affected. Germany was [pressing them to sell](https://www.dw.com/en/germany-tells-rosneft-find-buyer-or-lose-refinery/a-68477965). When the UK imposed similar sanctions last week, they eventually [made exceptions for that](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/uk-clears-dealings-with-german-managed-rosneft-refineries-amid-russia-sanctions/articleshow/124738339.cms).

Just-Sale-7015

DABOSSROSS9

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is planning substantial new sanctions on Russia, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday.
“We are going to either announce after the close this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning a substantial pickup in Russia sanctions,” Bessent told reporters.

Negotiations over ending the war in Ukraine have stalled, with President Trump putting off a planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest. Trump previewed Tuesday that the U.S. would make a significant Russia announcement within two days.

The imposition of additional sanctions would be a clear signal that Trump’s patience with Putin is wearing thin as he looks for ways to pressure Russia into a peace deal that would end nearly four years of fighting.

Distinct_Front_4336

Also from FT

The US is imposing sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, aiming to “degrade” Vladimir Putin’s war chest and support Donald Trump’s effort to end the war in Ukraine.

The move marks the first time Trump has imposed direct costs on Russia over the war.

"Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” said Treasury secretary Scott Bessent. “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine.”

He said the US was prepared to take further action. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions,” he said.

A number of Russian-based subsidiaries majority-owned by Rosneft and Lukoil have also been sanctioned under the move, which could bar them from all transactions in US dollars.

Crude oil prices rose more than 3 per cent.


Last week, the UK unveiled sanctions on the two oil majors, while the EU is set to announce its 19th package of penalties on Moscow, including a ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas.

In January, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on Russian oil majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas but held off imposing penalties on Rosneft and Lukoil over concerns that it could drive up global energy prices.

Wednesday’s announcement by the Trump administration means that Russia’s four largest oil companies have now been hit with US sanctions.

Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin over the continued war, now in its fourth year.


“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,” Trump said on Wednesday in the Oval Office.

Asked about the decision to impose sanctions on Moscow, Trump said: “I just felt it was time.”

“These are tremendous sanctions,” Trump said. “We hope that they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled.”

One day EU wont spend more on Russian oil than aid to Ukraine.

EnergyOwn6800

The fact the EU still brought oil gas and other resources from Russia after crimea and the Salisbury attacks shows how pathetic the EU

Russia literally used weapons of mass destruction on an EU member state(the uk was still in the EU at the time) snd Europe did nothing

jrob10997

Ain’t lukoil same as viada? We have a lot of them here in Latvia and I remember well how all lukoil’s converted into viada’s.

Benders03

Weewoofiatruck

Sanctions that should have been in effect years ago.

Less_Tacos

Will this in any way sour things between trump and putin or could this be just another scheme they have.

wormtickler

Fit_Checks

I want to see it before i believe anything from this criminal team in the white house

-------7654321

There's 100% some billionaire buddy of Trump who pushed for this so that he profits in the stock market with advance knowledge of what will happen. 

Said that, it's better that his banana republic schemes work against Russia than in favour...

AdminEating_Dragon

Prediction: Putin will make a phone call and then the sanction is paused because Trump believes Putin "wants peace".

Spineless Trump is going to TACO again on this.

wizgset27

Trump zig and zags and right now he is zagging. Given the big ramp in oil by the Saudis as of late it is indeed the right time to pull this lever.


In 2022 the war made oil prices shoot up as the world was not ready for a fossil market without Russia. Today, that gap is more and more being filled by rising supply from the middle east, east Asia and the rise of renewable.

Timely-Switch-2601

KayNicola

slipped-my-mind

This is an interesting development, but have you considered releasing the Epstein files?

OneEvilTit

putin allowed it to maintain oranjada's cover. rosfuck already established unsanctionable output channels. 

b00c

Uh oh, did Trump and his boyfirend/boss get in another spat?

NarrakianWizard

Fuzzy_Cricket6563

Ignore this BS. Come back when there is a non US study on the impact of any US sanctions on Russia.

Technical_Age_3504

Russia is exporting oil through a shadow fleet of old, uninsured tankers with obfuscated paperwork and threatening military action on anyone who interdicts them. 

Those old ships are going to cause a major disaster and when they do, there won't be insurance to deal with it and Russia will say, "Not my boat." 

We need to find a way to put a stop to that before it happens. Using obfuscated cargo vessels to skirt sanctions happens far too often by Russia and other bad actors.

majesticjg

Not to be a downer because this is good news but, as the article states, this really doesn’t materially change much unless we’re also including secondary sanctions on other countries buying Russian oil. If this war has revealed anything about the Russian economy, it’s that they’ve managed to get around fairly stringent sanctions already and it’s not like the US and Russian economies are intertwined much at all. Now…if we were to start excluding Indian and Chinese companies that buy Russian oil from the US banking system then that would bite.

Partytime79

SC: 
Archive Link -&gt; https://archive.ph/UOpGV

President Trump has enacted broad sanctions against Rosneft, and Lukoil, two of Russia's largest oil companies. Rosneft and Lukoil, accounting for about 55 percent of Russian oil production, are key contributors to Russia’s wartime budget, with the oil and gas sector as a whole comprising around 25 percent of state revenue. The move, experts say, could weaken Russia’s already stressed economy and hinder its capacity to bankroll its war in Ukraine. 

E.U. officials say the measures will deplete Russia’s coffers, though many rounds of Western sanctions since 2022 have failed to stop its war effort. 

They say a joint sanction push with the U.S. will inflict greater damage on Russia. In addition, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries have also caused gasoline shortages, driving a spike in prices. Ukraine attacked Rosneft’s Ryazan oil refinery overnight, one of the largest in the country, leading to a major fire. The refinery was hit in earlier attacks in August and September.

Starter Questions:

1) Will these sanctions have a different impact from the Biden-era sanctions that didn't do much, because now the war is entering the 4th year?

arpus

I for one hope we can supply Russia oil refineries with some tomahawks via Ukraine.

flat6NA

this seems like more of the same. we've been doing sanctions for 3 years. nobody particularly cares and it seems like the government equivalent of setting a blue+yellow facebook/twitter/etc. profile picture.

at the end of the day, until the various western european countries are willing to put boots on the ground (or america says "fine, **we'll** fix **your** problem and put **our** boots on the ground) , nothing will change.

reaper527

I think Russia is very happy with Trump, they've gotten to take much more of Ukraine without much assistance from the US.  Trump has also made Zelensky the villain, and tried to (successfully) blame him for the conflict.  Putin loves Trump, and no one was more happy he won the 2024 election.

Icy-Photograph6108

New sanctions on Russian oil aim to limit funding for the Ukraine conflict, impacting global oil markets and international relations.

US Sanctions on Russian Oil

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want