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In today's issue:

▪ US sanctions Russian oil companies

▪ Merkley’s marathon speech

▪ The Democrats’ conundrum

▪ Texas governor goes after professors

President Trump on Wednesday took his most significant and direct action yet against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a so-far-unsuccessful push to get the Kremlin leader to end his yearslong war with Ukraine.

New sanctions, announced by the Treasury Department, are targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies, Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO, in addition to dozens of subsidiaries.

The news broke just before the president spoke with reporters at the White House alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, where Trump told reporters he “felt it was time” to elevate the punishments against Russia.

“It’s a very big day in terms of what we’re doing. These are tremendous sanctions. They’re big, these are against their two big oil companies and we hope they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled,” Trump said.

“We would like to see them just take the line that has been formed over quite a long period of time and just go home,” he added.

Trump had previously placed tariffs on India over its purchase of Russian oil, but Wednesday’s move marks the first direct punitive action toward Moscow since Trump returned to the White House, promising to end the war within 24 hours.

Just last week, Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India would stop buying Russian oil, though India has not made such a commitment publicly.

The sanctions come a day after the Trump administration called off a planned meeting with Putin in Hungary.

“We canceled the meeting with President Putin,” Trump said alongside Rutte. “It just didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I canceled it, but we’ll do it in the future."

Whether the latest developments mark a turning point in Trump’s approach Ukraine remains to be seen. But the moves are sure to spur optimism in Kyiv, which just last week had its request for Tomahawk missiles shot down by Trump.

Trump on Wednesday added a new reason to his list of justifications for withholding the long-range missiles, saying it would take too long to train Ukraine’s military to fire the weapons. He had previously indicated concern about U.S. stockpiles and the dangers of letting Ukraine strike deeper into Russia with American weapons.

Behind the scenes, the Financial Times reported that Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's lunch meeting on Friday at times devolved into a shouting match over Zelensky’s pleas for Tomahawks. Prior to his appearance with Rutte, Trump rejected a Wall Street Journal report saying the U.S. had given approval for Ukraine to launch missiles deep into Russian territory.

The Ukrainian president said during a video address on Tuesday that once it became clear that Ukraine might not have access to the long-range missiles from the U.S. anytime soon, “Russia’s interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically.”

“This signals that this very issue — the issue of our deep strike capabilities — may hold the indispensable key to peace,” he added.

▪ The Hill: Trump: ‘Never discussed’ Zelensky ceding region to Putin

▪ CNBC: Russia was smug about Trump-Putin talks. Now they’re on hold, Moscow’s anxious

As Trump turns his attention to Russia and Ukraine, others in the administration are trying to hold together the ceasefire in the Middle East.

After reports surfaced that Israel launched attacks on Hamas in Gaza over claims the militant group violated the ceasefire, Vice President Vance visited Israel this week in an effort to reinforce the peace deal the Trump administration helped broker. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning to travel to Israel on Thursday and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Vance met with on Wednesday.

▪BBC: Why Trump made breakthrough in Gaza but can't with Putin over Ukraine

▪ Financial Times: Donald Trump urged Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms or be ‘destroyed’ by Russia

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ended seven wars — which is at least somewhat misleading — and, after the Gaza ceasefire was announced, added the Middle East conflict to his list of victories.

Even Trump has admitted that adding the Russia-Ukraine conflict to that list is proving a heavier lift than he expected.

But he had one of his biggest cheerleaders at the White House in Rutte. Following a meeting with senators earlier in the day, the NATO........

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