White House seeks plan for possible Russia sanctions relief, sources say

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they meet in Helsinki, Finland. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 04 March 2025
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White House seeks plan for possible Russia sanctions relief, sources say

  • Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers and if US sanctions on its energy system were eased, it could help prevent fuel prices from rising if Trump cracks down on oil exports from OPEC-member Iran

The United States is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as President Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a US official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The White House has asked the State and Treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said.
The sanctions offices are now drawing up a proposal for lifting sanctions on select entities and individuals, including some Russian oligarchs, according to the sources.
So-called options papers are often drafted by officials working on sanctions, but the White House’s specific request for one in recent days underscores Trump and his advisers’ willingness to ease Russian sanctions as part of a potential deal with Moscow.
It was not immediately clear what Washington could specifically seek in return for any sanctions relief.
Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers and if US sanctions on its energy system were eased, it could help prevent fuel prices from rising if Trump cracks down on oil exports from OPEC-member Iran.
The White House, the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kremlin last year described relations as “below zero” under the administration of Joe Biden, a Democrat who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed tough sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion in 2022.
But Trump, who has promised a quick end to the war, has upended US policy swiftly to open talks with Moscow, beginning with a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 12 that was followed by meetings between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia and Turkiye.
US sanctions on Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine have included measures aimed at limiting revenues from the country’s huge oil and gas industry and weakening its ability to fund the war.
Western governments led by Washington imposed a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russia’s oil exports. Biden also hit Moscow with designations on Russian energy companies and vessels that shipped its oil, including Washington’s toughest-yet measures on Jan. 10 shortly before leaving office.
Trump in January threatened to ramp up sanctions on Russia if Putin was unwilling to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. But more recently, Trump administration officials have openly acknowledged the possibility of easing sanctions on Moscow.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a Feb. 20 interview with Bloomberg Television that Russia could win economic relief, depending on how it approached negotiations in the coming weeks. Trump told reporters on Feb. 26 that Russian sanctions could be eased “at some point.”

ECONOMIC COOPERATION
The White House asked State and Treasury officials to devise a possible sanctions relief plan before Trump last week extended a state of emergency over the situation in Ukraine, the US sources said.
The state of emergency sanctions certain assets and people involved in Russia’s war. Those measures, imposed by then-President Barack Obama’s administration, have been in place since March 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea.
It is unclear which Russian sanctions the Trump administration would consider lifting first.
Trump could issue an executive order that would allow the administration to begin the process of easing some Russian sanctions, but he would also need to seek congressional approval to lift measures on certain entities, said John Smith, a partner at Morrison Foerster law firm and the former head of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Since 2022, Russia has been able to build a wartime economy with increased military spending and industrial production. But experts say the country’s economy is vulnerable and in desperate need of Western sanctions relief.
Russia says it is open for economic cooperation. The Kremlin said last week that Russia had lots of rare earth metal deposits and was open to doing deals to develop them after Putin held out the possibility of such collaboration with the US
Any formal economic deal with Moscow would likely require the US to ease sanctions.
Trump has been seeking a minerals deal with Ukraine — home to a trove of lithium deposits and rare earth minerals — as pay back for billions of dollars in US aid. However, no deal was signed after an explosive Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.


Kyiv mayor says drones and missiles attack city, triggering fires

Updated 4 sec ago
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Kyiv mayor says drones and missiles attack city, triggering fires

  • Officials said anti-aircraft units were in action

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was coming under a combined drone and missile attack early on Saturday, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
Timur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said two fires had broken out in the city’s Sviatoshinskyi district. Drone fragments had hit the ground there and in three other districts.
Officials said anti-aircraft units were in action.
Reuters witnesses reported waves of drones flying over the city, which had been jolted by a series of explosions. 


White House National Security Council hit by more firings, sources say

Updated 33 min 11 sec ago
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White House National Security Council hit by more firings, sources say

  • The restructuring of the NSC is expected to grant more authority to the State Department, the Defense Department and other agencies

WASHINGTON: A large restructuring of the White House National Security Council got under way on Friday as President Donald Trump moved to reduce the size and scope of the once-powerful agency, five sources briefed on the matter said.
Staff dealing with a variety of major geopolitical issues were sent termination notices on Friday, said the sources, who requested anonymity as they were not permitted to speak to the media.
The move comes just weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio took over from Mike Waltz as national security adviser. The NSC declined to comment.
The restructuring of the NSC is expected to grant more authority to the State Department, the Defense Department and other agencies, the sources said. The aim is to reduce the size of the NSC to just a few dozen people.
The NSC is the main body used by presidents to coordinate national security strategy. Its staff often make key decisions regarding America’s approach to the world’s most volatile conflicts and play a key role in keeping America safe.
The firings will reduce the NSC’s already pared-down staff. The body had more than 300 staffers under Democratic President Joe Biden, but even before the recent firings under Trump was less than half the size of Biden’s NSC.
The NSC staffers who are cut from the agency will be moved to other positions in government, two of the sources told Reuters.


Russia to present peace accord draft after prisoner exchange, Lavrov says

Updated 42 min ago
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Russia to present peace accord draft after prisoner exchange, Lavrov says

  • Lavrov says Europe encourages Ukrainian drone attacks, seeks to disrupt peace talks
  • Ukraine accuses Moscow of mass drone attacks, says leaders’ meeting should include Trump

MOSCOW: Russia will be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace accord once a prisoner exchange now under way is completed, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
Lavrov, in statements on his ministry’s website, said Russia was committed to working out a peaceful settlement in the more than three-year-old war pitting Moscow against Kyiv.
He also accused Ukraine of launching waves of drone attacks over several days on Russian targets that caused casualties and disrupted air traffic. He suggested European countries had encouraged Kyiv to launch the attacks to undermine peace efforts led by US President Donald Trump.
Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners on Friday and said they would free more in the coming days, an initiative agreed in talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkiye last week.
“We remain committed to a peace settlement. We are always open to talks...and let me stress that we are committed to the agreements that were achieved recently in Istanbul,” Lavrov said.
“We are working actively on the second part of the agreements which call for preparation by each side of a draft document setting out the conditions for achieving a reliable, long-term agreement on a settlement.”
“As soon as the exchange of prisoners of war is completed we will be ready to hand to the Ukrainian side a draft of such a document which the Russian side is now completing.”
Lavrov said the surge of Ukrainian drone attacks — some 800 sent against Russian targets over the last three days — was “a direct consequence” of support for Ukraine by European Union countries whose leaders visited Kyiv in recent days.
“We are certain that they will be held accountable for their share of responsibility for these crimes,” Lavrov said, referring to the European countries.
“This is clearly an attempt to disrupt peace talks and undermine progress made in Istanbul following the agreements between the presidents of Russia and the United States...We will continue this work no matter what provocations there may be.”
Lavrov’s ministry earlier vowed to respond to the attacks.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters that Kyiv was waiting for Russia’s proposals on the form of talks, a ceasefire and a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Sybiha, quoted by Ukrainian media, said Kyiv would be in favor of expanding such a meeting to include US President Donald Trump.

“We believe that this meeting could take place in an expanded format,” Sybiha was quoted as saying. “We would like very much for President Trump to be included.”
Upsurge nin drone strikes
Ukraine has offered little comment on the drone strikes, though it acknowledged hitting a battery plant on Friday in Russia’s central Lipetsk region.
Ukraine has also accused Russia of staging periodic mass drone attacks. One such attack on Sunday, described as the largest in the three-year-old war, destroyed homes and killed one woman.
Authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa accused Russia of striking port infrastructure with missiles on Friday, killing two people.
Prosecutors in eastern Donetsk region, the focal point of the war’s frontline, said three people were killed in shelling incidents in different parts of the region.


Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure

Updated 41 min 58 sec ago
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Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure

  • Students say their hopes and dreams are at stake

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.: For students around the world, an acceptance letter to Harvard University has represented the pinnacle of achievement, offering a spot among the elite at a campus that produces Nobel Prize winners, captains of industry and global leaders.
That allure is now in jeopardy. In its intensifying fight with the White House, Harvard was dealt its heaviest blow yet on Thursday, when the government blocked the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students. The move threatens to undermine Harvard’s stature, its revenue and its appeal among top scholars around the world.
Even more than the government’s $2.6 billion in research cuts, the administration’s action represents an existential threat for Harvard. The school summed it up in a lawsuit seeking to block the action: “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
Within hours of the decision, the consequences started becoming clear. Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth, who just finished her first year in a Harvard graduate program, is waiting to find out if she can return next year, the royal palace said. The Chinese government publicly questioned whether Harvard’s international standing will endure.
“The relevant actions by the US side will only damage its own image and international credibility,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing in Beijing.
A federal judge on Friday blocked the administration’s decision as the lawsuit plays out, but the order is only temporary.
Students say their hopes and dreams are at stake
On the Harvard campus, international students said they were stunned, confused and deeply concerned about what the revocation means for their degrees, their future plans and their legal status in the United States.
Walid Akef, a Harvard graduate student in art history from Egypt, said the Trump administration action would cost him “dreams, hopes and 20 years of my life.”
“Coming to Harvard, I’m not exaggerating. I planned for it for 15 years,” Akef said. He earned two master’s degrees and learned multiple languages before arriving at the university. He also worries what the changes will mean for his family, since his wife is pregnant and will soon be unable to travel.
“So this is absolutely disastrous. I’m going to lose not just stability, but I also lose my dreams and then lose, I don’t know, my beautiful life.”
Akef is cautiously optimistic that Harvard “will take care of this,” but he is also considering other options as US policy becomes increasingly inhospitable to foreign students.
A graduating law student from Asia said he had planned to stay in the United States and find work, “but not anymore.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do, but my future doesn’t appear to be here,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
Changes could erase a quarter of the student body
With a $53 billion endowment, Harvard has the means to weather federal funding losses that would cripple other institutions. But this new sanction strikes at the heart of its campus.
Already, the change is causing disarray, as thousands of students consider whether to transfer elsewhere or risk being in the country illegally. It could wipe out a quarter of the university’s total student body, while halving some of its graduate schools and threatening students who work as lab researchers and teaching assistants. Some sports teams would be left nearly empty.
For many, it has been a time of panicked calls home and huddles with fellow international students. For Kat, a data science math student from China, the news comes as she prepares to graduate from Harvard next week.
“My biggest fear is whether I would get deported immediately, because we’re not sure about our status,” said Kat, who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name out of concern about retaliation.
If the government’s action stands, Harvard would be banned from admitting new international students for at least two school years. Even if it regains its place as a global magnet, top students may shy away for fear of future government reprisals, the school said in its lawsuit.
The university enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. India and China send more students to the US than any other countries.
Asked if he was considering restrictions on other universities, President Donald Trump said, “We’re taking a look at a lot of things.”
“Harvard’s going to have to change its ways. So are some others,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. He added, “We don’t want troublemakers here.”
A time to weigh other opportunities
In its court filing, Harvard listed some of its most notable alumni who enrolled as foreign students. The list includes Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia; Empress Masako of Japan; and many leaders of major corporations.
While foreigners set to graduate from Harvard next week can still do so, the remaining current students and those bound for the university in the fall were weighing other opportunities. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, for one, said Friday that it would welcome international students already at Harvard and those who have been admitted.
“It feels like my world has exploded,” said Fang, a Chinese student who was accepted to Harvard for a master’s program. She also spoke on the condition that only her first name be used out of fear that she could be targeted.
Her student visa to the US was approved the day before the latest Harvard news broke. “If America becomes a country that doesn’t welcome me, I don’t want to go there.”
The action has dominated news in countries around the world, said Mike Henniger, president and CEO of Illume Student Advisory Services, a company that works with colleges in the US, Canada and Europe to recruit international students. He is currently traveling in Japan and awoke to the news Friday with dozens of emails from colleagues.
The reactions from the international community, he said, were incredulous: “’Unbelievable!’ ‘Oh My God!’ ‘Unreal!’“
For incoming freshmen who just got accepted to Harvard — and already committed — the timing could not be worse, but they are such strong students that any top university in the world would want to offer them a spot, he said.
“I think the bigger story is the students around the country that aren’t a Harvard student, the students that scraped by to get into a state university and are thinking: ‘Are we next?’” he said. “The Harvard kids are going to be OK. It’s more about the damage to the American education brand. The view of the US being a less welcoming place for international students.”

 


UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents

Updated 24 May 2025
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UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents

  • UNHCR said it has collected reports from family members and others of two separate boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar
  • About 1 million Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are in camps in Bangladesh after leaving Myanmar

GENEVA: The UN refugee agency said Friday it fears that 427 Rohingya fleeing Myanmar and a refugee camp in Bangladesh may have died at sea this month.
UNHCR said it has collected reports from family members and others of two separate boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar in May. It acknowledged that details remained unclear but that enough information has been collected and verified to bring the incidents to light publicly.
About 1 million Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are in camps in Bangladesh after leaving Myanmar. They include about 740,000 who fled a brutal “clearance campaign” in 2017 by Myanmar’s security forces, who were accused of committing mass rapes and killings.
A first boat that left from a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and traveled to Rakhine State in neighboring Myanmar to pick up more people sank on May 9, with only 66 survivors among a total of 267 people on board, UNHCR said.
The Geneva-based agency said reports indicated a second boat with 247 people on board that made a similar journey capsized a day later, with only 21 survivors.
“Reports have been coming in and it has been very hard to confirm what has happened, but the fear is that this number of people may have lost their lives at sea in the region,” said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch.
“Before these two tragedies, some 30 Rohingya were reported to have died or gone missing in boat journeys in 2025,” he said. “So if confirmed, this is a huge jump.”
Thousands of Rohingya each year attempt to cross the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, and often the fates of those who have gone missing go unexplained. Even when officials knew the boats’ locations, maritime authorities to rescue some of them have gone ignored, UNHCR has said.
A total of 657 people died or went missing in the regional waters in more than 150 boat journeys by fleeing Rohingya last year, UNHCR said.
The recent monsoon season brought perilous maritime conditions including strong winds, rain and rough seas, UNHCR said, adding that it was investigating reports about the fate of a third boat carrying 188 Rohingya that left Myanmar on May 14.
Many Rohingya have fled by sea to Indonesia, which has reported an increase in the number of Rohingya refugees in recent months.