Oil prices were little changed on Friday (August 22nd) as hopes for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine faded, putting prices on track for their first weekly gain in three weeks.

Brent crude futures fell 17 cents, or 0.25%, to $67.50 a barrel at 10:00 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 13 cents, or 0.2%, to $63.39.

Both contracts rose more than 1% in the previous session. Brent has risen 2.8% so far this week, while WTI has gained 1%. "Everyone is waiting for President Trump's next move," said UBS commodities analyst Giovanni Staunovo. "In the coming days, it seems unlikely anything will happen."

The three-and-a-half-year war continued this week when Russia launched airstrikes near Ukraine's border with the European Union on Thursday, and Ukraine said the strikes hit a Russian oil refinery and the Unecha oil pumping station, a key part of Russia's Druzhba oil pipeline leading to Europe. Hungary said shipments through the pipeline had been halted.

Trump is seeking to arrange a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy as part of efforts to broker a peace deal for Ukraine.

However, arranging such a meeting appears challenging, and discussions around potential security guarantees have hit snags, ING analysts said in a client note on Friday. The less likely a ceasefire is, the greater the risk of tougher U.S. sanctions against Russia, they said.

Meanwhile, U.S. and European planners have presented military options to their national security advisers after the first face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Russian leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin has demanded that Ukraine cede the entire eastern Donbas region, abandon NATO ambitions, and remove Western troops from the country, sources told Reuters.

Trump has promised to protect Ukraine in any deal that ends the war, while Zelenskiy has rejected the idea of ​​withdrawing from internationally recognized Ukrainian territory. (alg)

Source: Reuters