WASHINGTON /MOSCOW / KYIV - US Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions on Russia's two largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, in a bid to pressure Moscow to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

"Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was cited in a statement as saying.

Bessent said US President Donald Trump's administration is prepared to take further action if necessary, while urging US allies to join in and adhere to US sanctions on Russia.

State-controlled Rosneft and privately held Lukoil are the two largest Russian oil producers, jointly accounting for nearly half of Russia's total crude-oil exports, or around 2.2 million barrels a day in the first half of this year, according to Bloomberg estimates.

"I just felt it was time," Trump said at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, adding that he hoped "they won't be on for long" since he hoped the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be settled.

Trump says he canceled meeting with Putin 

The move came one day after a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump in Hungary was put on hold.

"We cancelled the meeting with President Putin," Trump told reporters at the White House. "It just didn't feel right to me."

"It didn't feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it, but we'll do it in the future," Trump added.

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Trump said last week that he will meet with Putin in Hungary's Budapest for talks, following a phone conversation between the two leaders. On Tuesday, however, he told reporters at the White House that such a meeting would be "a waste of time."

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that a date for the meeting between Putin and Trump has not been set.

"The date, in fact, has not been set. It remains to be determined, but thorough preparation is necessary before then, and this takes time," Peskov told reporters.

The United States and its allies have imposed multiple rounds of financial and trade sanctions on Russia since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022.

Russia holds strategic nuclear forces drill

Meanwhile, Russia conducted a strategic nuclear forces exercise overseen by Putin, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

According to the official statement, the training involved all three components of Russia's nuclear triad in the land, sea and air. During the exercise, practical launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles were carried out.

The exercise involved the launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk State Test Cosmodrome toward the Kura range in Kamchatka, and a Sineva ballistic missile from the strategic nuclear-powered submarine Bryansk in the Barents Sea.

Also, Tu-95MS long-range bombers took part in the drills, firing air-launched cruise missiles.

The training tested the level of readiness of Russia's command and control structures, as well as the practical skills of operational personnel in managing their assigned units, the Kremlin said, adding that all training tasks have been completed.

Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers completed a scheduled flight mission over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea on Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The flight lasted for more than five hours and was escorted by fighter jets, the ministry said in a statement.

During certain stages of the route, the bombers were escorted by fighter jets from foreign countries, it said.

All flights by aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces are conducted in strict compliance with international airspace regulations, it added. 

Ukrainian strikes

In Kyiv, the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement that Ukrainian forces conducted strikes on a military plant and an oil refinery in Russia.

The strikes hit the Saransk Mechanical Plant in the capital of Mordovia, which reportedly produces anti-personnel engineering ammunition, mine-laying kits, ammunition detonators and initiation nodes, causing explosions, according to the statement.

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A separate attack targeted the Makhachkala oil refinery in Dagestan, where a processing unit was struck, said the statement, adding that the refinery supplies fuel to Russian military vessels of the Caspian Fleet.

It noted that the strikes were intended to reduce Russia's military-economic potential.