President Donald Trump suspended a package of sanctions against Russia on Friday night, blocking penalties that both houses of Congress had passed overwhelmingly just weeks earlier and that were due to take effect within 48 hours. The move came as he pushes to keep Moscow at the table in talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, even as his relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deteriorates.
"I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that he did not want to "do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table." Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the suspension as a 60-day pause, during which officials would study the sanctions' potential fallout for the US and global economies.
Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who has emerged as a key Kremlin-White House back channel, called the suspension "an important and truly historic moment," saying the sanctions — signed into law by Trump himself in September — would have inflicted "serious damage" on American and global markets.
A Widening Rift With Kyiv
The suspension lands amid a rapid cooling between Washington and Kyiv. Relations frayed further last week after the US struck a deal to import diesel fuel from Russia, a move Zelensky has said amounts to the United States "investing in Russia's war effort." Trump has also pressed Ukraine to stop striking Russian refineries and to end the war on terms closer to those sought by President Vladimir Putin.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said Zelensky "doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did," adding that "he could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now." Zelensky, who attended a European Union leaders' summit in Brussels last week, said in a televised interview on Sunday that siding with Putin would be a "historic mistake," while voicing hope that Trump would reverse course: "We want to trust him and I hope that he will change his decisions. Because I think that it's all mistakes and it will not help us."
It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by the American side. We are very thankful for this. Now it works.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian president, on NBC's Meet the Press
Zelensky said the US had resumed sharing intelligence on incoming Russian ballistic missile strikes after a roughly three-day gap, during which Ukraine said it lost the unique early-warning data only Washington can provide. He also accused Elon Musk's SpaceX of deliberately throttling the speed of Starlink terminals used by Ukrainian forces, hampering both drone operations and air-defence missions. "It was a message from the American government to limit the speed," he said. "And technically, SpaceX did it." Trump has denied ordering any slowdown.
Sanctions That Were Never Fully Biting
Even before Friday's suspension, the sanctions regime had done only limited damage to Russia's war chest. According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, China has continued to buy roughly half of Russia's crude exports and India about 37%, often at discounted prices, keeping oil revenue flowing into Moscow despite years of Western restrictions.
Zelensky has repeatedly pushed for tougher sanctions to choke off the funding Russia uses to sustain its invasion, which began in February 2022. He said Sunday he now expects the Trump administration to lift further sanctions in the weeks ahead. Two people were killed and at least 17 injured overnight as Russia and Ukraine continued trading strikes on each other's power infrastructure, after the collapse of a short-lived, unilaterally declared "energy ceasefire" that Trump had announced earlier this year.
The suspension drew fire from members of Congress who voted for the sanctions, with Democratic senators pressing the administration over what they have described as a prolonged, unexplained pause in targeted penalties against Moscow. The White House has not detailed which specific measures remain blocked beyond the 60-day review window, or what conditions — if any — would allow them to be reinstated.
For now, both sides describe the diplomatic track as alive but strained. Zelensky says he is still prepared to negotiate; Trump insists his approach is the only way to end a war that has dragged on for more than four years. What remains unresolved is whether a detente with Moscow can survive the deepening distrust in Kyiv — or whether, as Zelensky put it, this is simply "all mistakes" that neither side can yet afford to walk back.
