Treasury Secretary Bessent Signals Potential Russia Sanctions Rollback in Ukraine Peace Talks

(Bloomberg) —

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled that sanctions relief for Russia could be on the table in talks over the Ukraine war, saying the US is prepared to either ramp up or take down penalties based on Russia’s willingness to negotiate.

“That’d be a very good characterization,” he said in response to a question about the potential for adjustments in either direction, in an interview on Bloomberg Television Thursday. “The president is committed to ending this conflict very quickly.”

Bessent said some recent remarks by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy suggesting that US President Donald Trump is misinformed about the war were “inappropriate” and that they had inserted “daylight” into the the US-Ukrainian relationship.

Trump on Wednesday called Zelenskiy a “dictator” and ratcheted up pressure on Kyiv to accept the terms of a deal to end the war. The Ukrainian president had objected to the US and Russia negotiating an agreement without Ukrainian input.

Bessent said Zelenskiy had assured him ahead of the Munich Security Conference over the weekend that Ukraine would sign a $500 billion deal handing over rights to Ukrainian minerals but hasn’t signed yet. The deal would have laid the groundwork for an “elegant” plan put forward by Trump to end the war.

Plan Sequencing

“The sequencing of what was going to happen was: bring the Ukrainians closer to the US through economic ties, convince the American people, the American public, get them onside,” Bessent said. “And then tell the Russians, go to the negotiating table with a very fulsome message that if we need to, we will take sanctions up.”

“The US, with greater economic interest in Ukraine, provides a security shield,” Bessent said.

Trump also suggested in a Truth Social post that Zelenskiy should hold elections in his country, which remains under martial law due to the war. The Ukrainian president “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump said.

Asked about the president’s remarks, Bessent said it’s “probably necessary” for Ukraine “to move forward with the democratic process,” after talking about visiting a children’s hospital that had been bombed during a recent visit to the country.

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