Welcome to the NewsHour. President Trump tonight took a step that he has not yet taken in this second term, imposing major new sanctions on Russia.

The Treasury Department announced the sanctions on Russia's two largest oil companies accusing Russia of not taking President Trump's pursuit of peace in Ukraine seriously.

Our Nick Schifrin is following this breaking news and joins us now.

Okay, Nick, so what are these sanctions?

So, Jeff, they target Russia's largest oil companies, that is Rosneft and Luke Oil.

And the reason is that that's significant is that oil and gas is Russia's largest single

revenue source, basically the backbone of Russia's economy.

So less revenue presumably means less money to go into the war machine to attack Ukraine,

which is why Ukraine and its allies have been asking the U.S. and Europe to actually take this

step for many years, in fact. The sanctions will make it harder for banks

to do business with Rosnev and Luke Oil and harder for insurers to cover any transactions

that involve those companies. And that means fewer Russian energy exports. It also could mean that

Russia will have to lower the price of its oil and gas exports, therefore lowering revenue even further.

The Biden administration declined to take this step because it was worried about the effect

of gas prices here in the U.S., but today gas prices are the lowest level that's been in years.

All of the experts, Jeff, I speak to you tonight, say the administration could have taken an even more dramatic step on this,

but they called this a major step because, again, as you said at the top,

this is the first time in this term that Trump has proven he is willing to impose major new sanctions on Russia.

And that raises the question, why now?

Right. And the answer to that, I think, is as important as any actual financial impact on Russia. And that raises the question, why now? Right. And the answer to that, I think, is as important as any actual financial impact on revenue in Russia, because the political

statement behind this announcement tonight is very clear. The Treasury Department saying it was

imposing sanctions, quote, as a result of Russia's lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.

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