Politician Oleh Rybachuk, head of the NGO Center for Joint Action and Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration in 2005, shared his opinions on Espreso TV.“Russia hopes it has amassed vast experience in circumventing sanctions. We must admit such experience exists. Iran lived under sanctions for decades. Putin thinks in those terms — I think he’s now thinking about a winter campaign of three to four months, because he hopes he can seize even more territory,” he said.Rybachuk warned that one should not expect new U.S. sanctions to deliver immediate results.“Trump said this himself when Putin expressed optimism and implied the sanctions wouldn’t matter much to Russia. Trump aptly mentioned something like six months — ‘let’s return to this boast in six months.’ But all economists without exception, Western and even Russian, say that these sanctions, combined with those already in place, will put Russia in a very difficult position within a few months. Social programs for Russians don’t matter to Putin,” the politician said.He believes that nothing matters to Putin now except destroying Ukraine.“That is irrational, and Trump does not understand this irrationality. But will we immediately see Putin change his position? No. Yet if what’s happening now continues — for example, Indian and Chinese companies already refusing to buy Russian oil because they risk sanctions — and if Trump presses on (his people have mentioned a second sanctions package targeting the financial and banking system), then obviously Russia could only last a few months,” Rybachuk noted.The politician said it would be very difficult to talk about Russia’s next financial year under those conditions.“But this must be accompanied by increased military aid. What President Zelenskyy talks about — Trump should give Ukraine significantly more weapons now. He’s afraid to give his Tomahawks, but there are other long-range weapons. Europeans must simply strengthen our ability to strike deep into Russia,” he said.Rybachuk emphasized that this terrifies Russia.“Putin has already threatened unimaginable reactions if Ukrainians strike deep into Russia, although we are doing those strikes anyway. The combination of military capability — especially destroying Russian targets at long range (we’re mostly hitting energy infrastructure now) — and economic sanctions could force Putin to come to the negotiating table, and Trump is counting on such scenarios. Europeans, broadly speaking, are acting much faster than usual and showing unprecedented unity and speed in decision-making for Europe. A year ago this would have been unheard of,” he concluded.On October 22, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, due to Moscow’s lack of readiness to end the war in Ukraine.A few days later, the company Lukoil announced its intention to sell its foreign assets due to “restrictive measures by certain states.”