US Unilateral Sanctions Target Russian Oil Giants Amid Global Condemnation

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, aiming to curtail Moscow's wartime revenues by freezing U.S.-based assets and prohibiting American business with them, causing oil prices to surge. Russia dismissed these sanctions as "entirely counterproductive," with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asserting Russia's resilience to Western restrictions and downplaying their impact. President Donald Trump canceled a planned summit with Vladimir Putin, citing insufficient progress toward peace talks, though he suggested Chinese President Xi Jinping could influence Putin to help end the war. China strongly condemned the sanctions, calling them unilateral and lacking legal basis under international law, and criticized related European Union sanctions on Chinese companies, emphasizing that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solutions to the Ukraine crisis. China also warned the EU to stop targeting its enterprises and vowed to protect its interests, maintaining its neutral stance on the conflict. These sanctions are expected to significantly disrupt Russian crude exports, especially to major Asian buyers like China and India, escalating tensions in global energy markets.