US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that Washington is looking at all available options when it comes to implementing new sanctions against Russia for its continued attack in Ukraine.
The comments are just two weeks since the Alaska Summit, in which U.S. President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what was billed as a step towards closure of the war.
"He has, in a despicable manner, increased the bombing campaign. So, I think with President Trump, all options are on the table — and I think we'll be examining those very closely this week," Bessent said on Fox News.
The Alaska talks had come after Trump had set a two-week deadline for Moscow to demonstrate movement toward a peace deal. That deadline ran out on Monday, with no sign that the war was slowing.
Simultaneously, Putin defended his military action during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, China. He placed blame with Western powers, asserting the war was the result of the "coup d'état in Kiev in 2014, provoked by the West," as reported by Russian state agency Tass.
"The second reason for the crisis is the West's constant attempts to draw Ukraine into NATO. As we have repeatedly emphasised, this poses a direct threat to Russia's security," he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who spoke on the last Friday, had already warned that Putin's refusal to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky within Trump's designated timeframe would mean that he had again outwitted the U.S. leader.
Speaking at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Macron stated, "If that doesn't happen by Monday, the deadline set by President Trump, it means that once again President Putin played President Trump."
Zelensky similarly voiced this last week, referring to Trump's previous comment wherein he gave Putin "a week or two" to agree to peace negotiations.
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