The Russian leader said sanctions were “serious for us” but insisted he would not bow to US pressure over the war with Ukraine.
Published October 23, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed not to bow to pressure from Western countries after the United States imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil in a bid to pressure President Vladimir Putin to reach a ceasefire over his country’s invasion of Ukraine. President Trump’s sanctions threatened to pose risks to foreign financial institutions doing business with these companies. This is a warning that countries like India may find it difficult to continue buying oil from Moscow.
The European Union also adopted comprehensive new sanctions on Russian energy exports on Thursday, banning imports of liquefied natural gas.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the U.S. sanctions an “unfriendly act,” but the Russian president downplayed their impact.
“It is, of course, clear that they are serious for us. And they will have certain consequences, but they will not have a significant impact on our economic well-being,” Putin said. “This is, of course, an attempt to put pressure on Russia. But no self-respecting country or self-respecting people will ever make a decision under pressure.”
The sanctions announced by President Trump are the latest development in a policy shift regarding the war against Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly changed his position on the war, ranging from admonishing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for not appreciating U.S. aid to criticizing Putin for refusing to negotiate a ceasefire.
President Putin has called for Ukraine to completely disarm and for Russia to retain territory it captured during the war. This position appears to be non-negotiable for Ukraine, and President Trump has been unable to move forward between the two positions.
Plans for a direct meeting between Trump and Putin fell apart this week after the president proposed “freezing” the Russia-Ukraine war with a ceasefire on the current front.
President Trump said Wednesday that he canceled a meeting with the Russian president because of Putin’s stance on Ukraine, but the White House said a meeting between the two presidents was not completely off the table.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said Thursday: “I think the president and the entire administration would like to see something like this happen again someday, but we want to make sure there are concrete positive outcomes from those talks.”
President Trump also signaled the possibility of sending Tomahawk missiles into Ukraine, allowing them to strike long-range targets deep in Russia. President Zelenskiy had hoped to secure an agreement on weapons during talks at the White House last week, but they left without an agreement.
On Thursday, President Putin said the plan to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles was an “attempt to escalate.”
“If such weapons were used to attack Russian territory, the response would be very serious, if not overwhelming. Let me think about it,” he said.
