‘They are going to stop... it’s a process’: Trump repeats claim India will cut Russian oil imports by year-end

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him India would gradually stop purchasing oil from Russia, even as Washington imposed sweeping new sanctions on Moscow’s top energy firms.

“India, as you know, has told me they are going to stop… It’s a process. You can’t just stop (buying oil from Russia). By the end of the year, they’ll be down to almost nothing, almost 40% of the oil. India, they’ve been great. Spoke to Prime Minister Modi yesterday.
They’ve been absolutely great,” Trump told reporters in Washington.

His remarks came hours after the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, accusing them of fueling President Vladimir Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.

“The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is imposing further sanctions as a result of Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine,” the department said in a statement. “Today’s actions increase pressure on Russia’s energy sector and degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine and support its weakened economy.”

Trump hailed the move as “a very big day,” telling reporters, “These are tremendous sanctions… those are against their two big oil companies. We hope that the war will be settled.”