The Kremlin has accused Donald Trump of declaring war on Russia in a furious response to his administration's decision to impose new US sanctions. The White House announced a fresh set of financial measures targeting two of Russia's biggest oil companies – Rosneft and Lukoil – on Wednesday.
The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said the government would freeze all the US assets belonging to the entities, as well as banning American companies and individuals from trading with them. The White House is also threatening secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with Rosneft and Lukoil. The sanctions have already led to serious consequences for the Kremlin, with Chinese state oil companies halting their purchases of seaborne Russian oil.
At the same time, Trump appeared to wash his hands of responsibility over Volodymyr Zelensky's use of long-range missiles.
A report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that the US has given the green light to Kyiv to use missiles such as the Uk-supplied Storm Shadow to hit targets deep inside Russia.
Previously, Joe Biden's administration had only allowed Ukraine to use such weapons in cross border attacks.
Although Trump slammed the report as “FAKE NEWS”, he added cryptically: “The US has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”
The combination of new US sanctions and Trump's ambivalent position on long-range missiles has spooked the Kremlin and provoked a furious response.
Dmitry Medvedev – a close ally of Vladimir Putin – accused the US President of a blatant “act of war”.
In a post to his Telegram channel, he wrote: “The USA is our enemy, and their talkative 'peacemaker' has now fully taken up the path of war with Russia. Yes, he does not always actively fight on the side of Banderite Kyiv yet, but this is now his conflict, not the senile Biden's!
“Of course, they will say that he could not do otherwise, that he was pressured in Congress, etc. This does not change the main thing: the decisions made are an act of war against Russia. And now Trump has fully aligned himself with the insane Europe.”
Russia's former prime minister also appeared to make a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
He added that Russia was now entitled “to strike with various weapons” at all Ukrainian positions “without looking back at unnecessary negotiations”.
Russia has an arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons and Medvedev's use of the term “various weapons” could be read as a reference to them.
This would not be the first time that the Kremlin has considered using such weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. US intelligence received reports that Russia was considering using tactical nukes to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the autumn of 2022 that threatened to destroy its army.
Putin also warned on Thursday that he would view the use of long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia as “an escalation” that would elicit a “very serious and overwhelming” response.