US could hit Russia with more sanctions

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has prepared additional sanctions it could use to target key areas of Russia's economy if President Vladimir Putin continues to delay ending Moscow's war in Ukraine.



U.S. officials have also told European counterparts that they support the EU using frozen Russian assets to buy U.S. weapons for Kyiv, and Washington has held nascent internal conversations about leveraging Russian assets held in the U.S. to support Ukraine's war effort.



While it is not clear whether Washington will actually carry out any of those moves in the immediate term, it shows there is a well-developed toolkit within the administration to up the ante further after Trump imposed sanctions on Russia on Wednesday for the first time since returning to office in January.



Trump has positioned himself as a global peacemaker, but has admitted that trying to end Russia's more-than-three-year war in neighboring Ukraine has proven harder than he had anticipated.



His meeting with Putin in Alaska in August failed to make progress.



European allies — buffeted by Trump's swings between accommodation and anger toward Putin — hope he keeps increasing pressure on Moscow.