BRUSSELS: The EU and Britain announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday without waiting for the United States to join them, a day after President Donald Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin failed to elicit a promise for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

London and Brussels said their new measures would zero in on Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and financial companies that have helped it avoid the impact of other sanctions imposed over the war.

“Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone who makes them more tangible for the perpetrators of the war,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The sanctions were unveiled without an immediate announcement of corresponding steps from Washington, despite intense public lobbying from leaders of European countries for the Trump administration to join them.

“We have repeatedly made it clear that we expect one thing from Russia — an immediate ceasefire without preconditions,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on the sidelines of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels. As Russia had not accepted a ceasefire, “we will have to react,” he said. “We also expect our US allies not to tolerate this.”

Trump gets talks pledge but no Ukraine ceasefire from Putin

The Europeans say this is proof that Putin, who started the war by invading his neighbour in 2022, is not prepared to end it. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she had spoken to Zelenskiy and that a further package of sanctions was being prepared. “It’s time to intensify the pressure on Russia to bring about the ceasefire,” she wrote on X.

‘Ending the war’

Trump said Russia and Ukraine would “immediately” start peace talks following his two hours long call with Putin on Monday, despite the Russian leader rebuffing the US president’s call for an unconditional truce.

Trump framed the two-hour conversation as a breakthrough as the Republican seeks an elusive deal to end the conflict that he promised on the campaign trail to solve within 24 hours. But Putin struck a more reserved tone, saying he was ready to work with Kyiv on a memorandum towards ending the war Moscow launched in Feb 2022 but insisting on compromises on both sides.

Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he was deliberating over what actions to take, but gave no further detail. “We’re looking at a lot of things, but we’ll see,” Trump said as he left a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, who has patched up relations with the US president after a blazing row in the Oval Office, urged Trump in a separate call not to make any decisions “without us.”

Trump has pinned his hopes on ending the conflict on a personal bond with Putin, even as he shows growing frustration with the Kremlin leader’s refusal to do a deal. “I believe it went very well,” Trump said on his Truth Social network after Monday’s Putin call. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.”

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2025