The Biden administration on Friday targeted Russia’s energy sector, including its oil industry, with some of its harshest sanctions to date meant to cut off funding for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The Biden administration on Friday imposed its broadest package of sanctions yet targeting Russia's oil and gas revenues in an attempt to give Kyiv and the incoming administration of Donald Trump leverage to reach a deal for peace in Ukraine.

If Ukraine falls, it will be hard to spin as anything but a debacle for the United States, and for its president.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said Donald Trump's return to the White House would open "a new chapter" and reiterated a call for Western allies to send troops to help "force Russia to peace".

The White House seized a rare chance to undermine Russia and build up regional allies as it built a coalition to support the Ukrainians.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a new $500 million security assistance package for Ukraine in the waning days of the Biden administration.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of the European leaders closest to Donald Trump, said on Thursday she believed the U.S. president-elect would defend Western interests once he took office and would not abandon Ukraine.

Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary over the war with Russia and the expired gas transit deal continue to increase online.

President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine aims to obtain clear security guarantees and fulfill this year's dream of ending the war. — Ukrinform.

Blinken said the Department of the Treasury is concurrently sanctioning more than 150 entities and individuals, including major Russian oil producers Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, Russian insurance companies,