President Donald Trump said European leaders will visit the United States on Monday or Tuesday to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine, and that he plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin "soon," as his administration signalled readiness to move to a second phase of sanctions on Moscow.
The comments came as Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as the largest aerial bombardment of the war so far, firing dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in an assault that killed at least four people and struck Ukraine's main government building in Kyiv for the first time. Trump said he was "not happy with the whole situation".
Trump did not identify which European leaders he expected to visit, saying only that "certain European leaders are coming over to our country on Monday or Tuesday individually." He also indicated the U.S. was prepared to escalate economic pressure on Russia; administration officials have discussed imposing secondary tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian energy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the idea of secondary tariffs and urged European nations to stop purchasing Russian oil and gas. "We have to stop any kind of energy from Russia, and by the way, anything, any deals with Russia," Zelensky said in an interview with ABC News. "We can't have any deals if we want to stop them."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC's Meet the Press that Washington is seeking greater European support for secondary tariffs aimed at countries that purchase Russian oil. "If EU nations increased sanctions and secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, the Russian economy will be in total collapse, and that will bring President Putin to the table," Bessent said. 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."
The scale of Russian energy sales since the full-scale invasion began in March 2022 has been substantial. The think tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimates Russia has sold roughly $985 billion (about £729 billion) of oil and gas since then, with China and India among the biggest purchasers. The European Union has sharply reduced its purchases but has not entirely ended them; Brussels laid out plans in June to cease all purchases of Russian energy by 2027.
India has resisted international pressure to curtail Russian oil imports, saying it will continue to seek the "best deal" for the economic needs of its population. The cluster of Western measures has included punitive steps by the U.S.: last month Washington imposed tariffs of 50% on some goods from India in response to continued purchases of Russian oil. Russia, meanwhile, said at a meeting in Beijing last week that it would increase gas supplies to China.
The broader oil market has also been affected by decisions within OPEC+ — the group that includes Russia — which agreed recently to increase production, a move expected to exert downward pressure on global oil prices.
The reported bombardment of Ukraine involved at least 810 drones and 13 missiles, according to Ukrainian officials, and represented an escalation in attacks that have intensified since a summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska last month. Kyiv said the strike damaged its main government building and caused civilian casualties; authorities have said at least four people were killed.
Western capitals have been debating how to maintain pressure on Moscow while preventing the wider escalation of the conflict. Secondary tariffs have attracted interest in Washington as a tool to squeeze Russia's revenue from third-party buyers of its energy, but the approach would require coordination with allies and carries the risk of straining ties with countries that have pursued pragmatic energy and diplomatic policies.
European leaders' planned visits to Washington, if they take place as Trump indicated, would be expected to focus on coordination over sanctions, energy strategy and diplomatic avenues aimed at ending the fighting. Officials in Brussels and national capitals have not publicly confirmed the schedule Trump described.
The developments add to the evolving international response to Russia's invasion, intermixed with intense military activity on the ground in Ukraine and diplomatic manoeuvring among major powers over energy, trade and the means to compel Moscow to negotiate or alter its conduct.