Donald Trump has threatened tougher sanctions against Russia after its heaviest aerial bombardment on Ukraine since the war began.
Sunday’s strikes killed four people, including a mother and her baby, and damaged Ukraine’s main government building in Kyiv for the first time.
The attack – which Ukraine said involved at least 810 drones and 13 missiles – has led to growing calls for stronger Western action against President Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that no sanctions would ever be able to force Russia to “change the consistent position that our president has repeatedly spoken about”.
Speaking to reporters after the bombardment, the US president said he was “not happy with the whole situation.”
Trump has previously threatened harsher measures against Russia, but not taken any action when Putin ignored his deadlines and threats of sanctions.
Asked on Sunday if he was prepared to move to the “second phase” of punishing Moscow, Trump replied: “Yeah, I am,” though gave no details.
The threat follows remarks from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said Washington was prepared to escalate economic pressure but needed stronger European backing.
In an interview with NBC, Bessent said that, if EU nations increased sanctions and secondary tariffs on countries which buy Russian oil, “the Russian economy will be in total collapse, and that will bring President Putin to the table”.
He added: “We are in a race now between how long can the Ukrainian military hold up, versus how long can the Russian economy hold up.”
So far, Washington’s most aggressive measure has been a 50% tariff on imports from India, imposed last month in response to Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil. Trump has floated the idea of extending such secondary sanctions to other countries, but has yet to follow through.
Reuters The sun casts a shadow over a smoking residential building while a water jet is fired at the building in an attempt by firefighters (out-of-frame) to extinguish the blaze, in Kyiv on 7 September.
European leaders are expected to travel to Washington early this week to discuss ways of ending the war, Trump has said
“Certain European leaders are coming over to our country on Monday or Tuesday individually,” Trump said, without specifying which leaders. He also signalled that he would speak with Putin in the next couple of days.
In an interview with ABC News, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged European nations to fully stop buying Russian energy.
He said: “We have to stop [buying] any kind of energy from Russia, and by the way, anything, any deals with Russia. We can’t have any deals if we want to stop them.” He praised Trump’s tariff strategy as “the right idea” to cut off Moscow’s revenues.
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022, Russia has earned around $985bn (£729bn) of oil and gas, according to the think tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
China and India have been the largest buyers, while the EU has significantly reduced – but not entirely halted – purchases. Brussels has pledged to phase out all Russian energy imports by 2027.
Despite mounting sanctions, Russia is working to expand its markets. At a meeting in Beijing last week, Moscow said it would increase supplies of gas to China.
Meanwhile, OPEC+, the group of oil-producing nations that includes Russia, has agreed to boost production, a move that could drive down global oil prices and complicate Western efforts to squeeze Moscow’s finances.
