US President Donald Trump‘s administration on Friday issued a month-long sanctions waiver allowing the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that are at sea, extending an earlier move to soften surging energy prices.
The license, issued by the Treasury Department, comes two days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would not renew the waiver.
The latest move allows for the purchase of oil and petroleum products that have been loaded onto any vessel as of Friday, through 12:01am (0401 GMT) on May 16.
It prolongs an earlier easing of sanctions that expired on April 11.
On Wednesday, however, Bessent had told reporters that the United States would not make such an extension for Russian oil – or Iranian oil.
Both measures aimed to ease global supply shocks from the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Tehran retaliated by effectively closing off the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy shipments.
Oil prices have since surged, squeezing countries and especially those dependent on energy exports from the region.
US gasoline prices have jumped as well, putting pressure on households ahead of key midterm elections this year.
But such waivers could complicate efforts to deprive Russia of oil revenue needed for its war on Ukraine.
This week, after a meeting of Group of Seven finance leaders in Washington, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stressed that “Russia mustn’t be getting benefits from what’s happening in Iran”.
He added that Ukraine should also not be “collateral damage”.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022, has become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
© 2026 France 24
Operator Starsky has commented on this horror :
Operator Starsky 🇺🇦
“Trump allows putin to sell as much oil as possible, especially now when russian crude is twice as expensive, thanks to Trump’s war in Iran.
Of course, russia will use the money to build more drones and missiles, and launch them at Ukraine. In simple terms, this is how common MAGA folks fund putin’s war and kill Ukrainian civilians.”
Magaputler SCUM.
For the record, there is no such thing as “Magaputler” and only a propagandist would continually use that divisive and ignorant phrase.
Secondly, ALL people are welcome to support Ukraine, even our MAGA friends. Besides, if you really want to make America greater again, that would include stopping russian terrorism and genocide in Ukraine.
The only propaganda merchant here is you.
It is so tiresome having to deal with your rubbish responses to reasonable comments.
I didn’t say maga. I differentiate between maga and those magas who hate Ukraine; ie the entire Krasnov regime, by combining maga with putler. That ought to be clear enough even for you.
Any decent maga who witnessed Krasnov stabbing Zel in the back in the Oval Office with nazi sidekick VanZkov twisting the blade would have abandoned all support there and then for this criminal regime.
2025 :
“Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “ a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock-bottom.”
“President Zelenskyy said last week that he doesn’t know where half of the money is that we gave him. Well, we gave them, I believe, $350 billion.”
“The leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating.”
“You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-trump-war-zelenskyy-putin-7fe8c0c80b4e93e3bc079c621a44e8bb