Bessent: The war would have ended in two or three months if Europe had introduced secondary tariffs

If Europe were to impose significant secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, Russia's war against Ukraine would end in 60 or 90 days. This was stated by the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an interview with to Reuters and Bloomberg.

He notes that such a move would cut off Moscow's main source of revenue.

Bessent also criticized European countries that continue to buy Russian oil or petroleum products refined in India from Russian raw materials, claiming that they are helping to finance the war.

He also said that the United States is ready to work with European countries to strengthen sanctions against Russian companies, including oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, and to consider a wider use of frozen Russian sovereign assets after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

• on September 13, 2025, the US President published "a letter sent to all NATO countries and the world"in which he stated that he was ready to impose "serious sanctions" against Russia when all the countries of the Alliance start doing the same and stop buying Russian oil.
• on September 15, Secretary Rubio said that Trump wants European countries to impose such sanctions on Russia, what they expect from the United States itself.