WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration last week announced new “massive sanctions” against Russia’s oil industry that are aimed at moving Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and bringing an end to Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

The sanctions against oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil followed months of calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as bipartisan pressure on Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry, the economic engine that has allowed Russia to continue to execute the conflict even as it finds itself largely internationally isolated.

“Hopefully he’ll become reasonable,” Trump said of Putin not long after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies and their subsidiaries. “And hopefully Zelenskyy will be reasonable, too. You know, it takes two to tango, as they say.”

The U.S. administration announced the sanctions as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was in Washington for talks with Trump. The military alliance has been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new sanctions were a direct response to Moscow’s refusal to end its “senseless war” and an attempt to choke off “the Kremlin’s war machine.”

Bessent added that the Treasury Department was prepared to take further action if necessary to support Trump’s effort to end the war. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”

Rutte, in his Oval Office appearance, went out of his way to underscore that the weaponry the United States is selling Europe to provide to Ukraine has been essential to helping stop many attacks.

“We need to make sure that the air defense systems are in place, and we need the U.S. systems to do that, and the Europeans are paying for that,” Rutte said. “It is exactly the type of actions we needed, and the president is doing that and trying everything to get this work done.”

Trump’s efforts to end the war that started with Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago have failed to gain traction. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Putin’s refusal to budge from his conditions for a settlement after Ukraine offered a ceasefire and direct peace talks.

Trump said last week that his plan for a swift meeting with Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.” European leaders accused Putin of stalling.

Russia has not made significant progress on the battlefield, where a war of attrition has taken a high toll on Russian infantry and Ukraine is short of manpower, military analysts say.