Trump Suspends Many Provisions of His Own Russia Sanctions Law

President Trump signed an executive order late Friday that suspends many provisions of the Russia sanctions law he himself signed in September. The order came two days before those sanctions were set to take effect, and it lands in the middle of an increasingly public feud with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump says the move is tied to his peace effort. According to the BBC's follow-up report, he wrote on Truth Social that "I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine." The order itself described the suspension as being in the US "national interest," the BBC reported. Critics see it differently, and so does Kyiv.

A note on sourcing: this account rests on two BBC reports. The text of the order and Trump's Truth Social posts were not reviewed directly, so the quotes from those posts come via the BBC.

What the Law Was Supposed to Do

Congress passed the sanctions package and Trump signed it in September. It gave the president broad power to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on imports from the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas. The two that matter most are China and India. According to the think tank CREA, China takes roughly half of Russia's crude exports and India about 37 percent.

The law also sanctioned senior Russian figures, Vladimir Putin among them, along with Russian financial institutions and the so-called shadow fleet of vessels.

Exactly which of those provisions are now on ice has not been made clear. The BBC described "many" provisions as waived but did not list them. Whether the tariff authority aimed at China and India is among the suspended pieces remains unconfirmed.

How long the suspension lasts is also murky. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a 60-day pause, during which the impact of the sanctions on the American and global economies would be analyzed, according to a follow-up BBC report. The first BBC report gave no duration, and it is unclear whether the pause is temporary or permanent.

Diesel, Starlink and a Falling Out

The friction with Kyiv did not start Friday. Relations frayed after Washington struck a deal to import Russian diesel, a move meant to lower energy prices that rose during the Iran war. That arrangement temporarily suspended some US sanctions, and Zelensky said it amounted to America investing in Russia's war effort. The BBC also reported that fuel costs and inflation are hurting Trump ahead of the midterms.

Trump has since said Zelensky is "more difficult to deal with" than Putin. Zelensky, speaking at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, said it was nice to be among "real leaders." On Truth Social, Trump wrote that Zelensky "doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did."

Ukraine has also accused the United States of pulling back key military support. Zelensky said American officials blamed technical problems for speed limits on Starlink service in Ukraine, but that Ukrainian tests on EU territory showed faster speeds. He also accused the US of ending defense intelligence sharing. Trump denied deliberately slowing Starlink and denied cutting off intelligence. Those claims come from Zelensky alone, and Trump disputes them.

Moscow Cheers, Democrats Object

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev called the order "an important and truly historic moment" and said the sanctions would have done serious damage to American and global markets.

Zelensky told NBC News on Sunday that siding with Putin would be a historic mistake, and said he expects the administration to lift more sanctions.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat, wrote on X that "Trump's latest surrender to Putin again betrays our Ukrainian partners." The BBC said the order prompted a backlash from lawmakers but named only Democrats. No Republican reaction was seen in the reporting reviewed for this story.

What Comes Next

The next marker is the review period Rubio described. If it runs the full 60 days and is counted from the order date, it would end around mid-December, though that is our own arithmetic and the order's terms are unconfirmed. Watch for whether Congress pushes back on a law it passed only weeks ago, whether the administration grants further waivers as Zelensky expects, and whether the order's full text clarifies which provisions are suspended.