The United States on October 22 announced sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies, urging Russia and Ukraine to immediately cease fire. Europe also agreed on a new round of sanctions on Russia.

Sanctions target Russian energy industry

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said in a statement on Monday that the U.S. sanctions targeted the Russian state-owned Russian oil company and the private company LUKE oil company.

According to Bloomberg estimates, the two companies¡¯ crude oil exports together account for 50% of Russia¡¯s total crude oil exports.

In his statement, Besent accused Russia of refusing to cease fire and accused sanctioned Russian oil companies of providing funds for Russia's special military operations against Ukraine. He said the U.S. Treasury Department is prepared to "take further action as necessary" to support President Trump's efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

EU member states reached an agreement on the 19th round of sanctions against Russia on the 22nd, and it is expected that the EU summit will be formally approved on the 23rd. According to a previous statement issued by the European Commission, this round of sanctions against Russia mainly involves energy, finance and other fields. The EU will ban Russian liquefied natural gas from entering the European market for the first time and lower the Russian crude oil price cap to US$47.6 per barrel; Rosneft and Gazprom will face a comprehensive trading ban; the EU will expand trading bans on financial institutions in Russia and other countries. Ban and include cryptocurrency platforms in sanctions for the first time.

Trump: The sanctions are ¡°enormous¡±

Bescent said in an interview with Fox Business News on the morning of 22nd that Trump was disappointed with the lack of progress in Russia-Ukraine negotiations after the meeting between US and Russian leaders in Alaska in August.

Trump said that the sanctions against Russia this time were "huge" and hoped that the sanctions would not last too long and that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could be subsided. "It's time (for sanctions), we've been waiting for a long time," he said.

Trump announced a day earlier that he had postponed the scheduled meeting with Russian President Putin on the Ukraine issue in Budapest, Hungary. He told the media on the afternoon at the White House meeting with NATO Secretary-General Luther that he had cancelled the scheduled meeting because ¡°he felt the time was not right¡± and that the current meeting ¡°cannot reach the goal¡±.

Rutte said that he visited the White House to discuss with Trump how to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but there is currently no peace plan that can be put on the negotiating table. In an interview with CNN that night, he said that he and Trump agreed on the need to exert "continuous pressure" on the Russian economy.

Russian exercise launches intercontinental ballistic missile

Earlier on the 22nd, the Russian President's website released a message saying that Russia held a joint exercise of land, sea and air strategic nuclear forces, during which intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles were launched.

It is that during the exercise, an intercontinental ballistic missile "Ars" was launched from the national experimental space launch site in Plesetsk to the Kurra target site on the Canadian Peninsula. In the waters of the Barents Sea, the strategic nuclear submarine "Briansk" launched a "deep blue" ballistic missile. The Chart-95MS long-range strategic bomber participating in the exercise launched an aerial cruise missile.

According to TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in contact with the military in the Kremlin, said that the exercises were routine training.The exercises tested the level of combat readiness of the Russian military, and all tasks of the strategic nuclear force exercises have been completed.

It is that the "Aars" missile was developed at the beginning of this century, a fixed-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that can be launched or launched from a fixed launch well, can carry multiple nuclear warheads, with a maximum range of up to 11,000 kilometers.

Trump: Don¡¯t offer a ¡°war ax¡±

Trump denied on the 22nd that the United States would provide Ukraine with Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, calling the relevant report of the Wall Street Journal "" false news."

He said that learning to operate the high-precision Tomahawk long-range cruise missile "requires at least six months, usually one year, of intensive training", and the US military will not teach other countries how to operate it.

Russia has repeatedly warned that if the U.S. supplies Ukraine with ¡°Tax¡± missiles, it will exacerbate the escalation of the situation. Trump once said he had made ¡°some decision¡± on the matter, but later refused to provide Ukraine with ¡°Tax¡± missiles.

Rutte, who met with Trump on the 22nd, said that Trump's reason for not providing Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine was "completely correct." (Reporters: Xu Jianmei, Hu Yousong, Chen Binjie, Zhang Zhaoqing, Geng Huihuang, Bao Nuomin, Meng Jing, Wang Qian)