'Morally inappropriate for India to buy cheap Russian oil even as Ukrainians suffer'

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday slammed India for importing cheap Russian oil, terming it as being “morally inappropriate”.

India is able to buy cheap oil because of “our suffering, our tragedy, and because of the war that Russia launched against Ukraine,” he said in an interview to NDTV.

“The opportunity for India to buy Russian oil at a cheap price comes from the fact that Ukrainians are suffering from Russian aggression. Dying every day. And they are living in houses without heating, without hot water, without electricity. And this fact, we hope, should be appreciated by those who make decisions on purchasing Russian oil,” said Kuleba.

He underscored that there should be a conversation about the causes and the reasons why one can benefit from Russian aggression.

He said in the interview that Europeans are taking measures against Russian oil to get Europeans together with the G7 so that Russia is put in more difficult conditions in the global market and is forced to offer better conditions for its potential clients in the oil market.

“The litmus test for the Indian government will be, of course, the way they will be treating this price-cap mechanism, introduced by G7 countries. But again, when you ask yourself the question why India is buying Russian oil, do not look to the European Union for the answer. Look at Ukraine. And if you buy cheap Russian oil, do more to help Ukraine today and also to end the war tomorrow,” Kuleba said.

He was responding to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar's statement on Monday that between the months of February and November this year, the European Union (EU) has imported more fossil fuel from Russia than the next 10 countries combined.

“It is not enough to point fingers at the European Union and say, oh, they are doing the same thing," said the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

''India is a very important player in the global arena and the Prime Minister of India, with his voice, can make a change," he said. At the same time, New Delhi, he added, needs to be direct in referring to the situation in Ukraine.

''We are waiting for the moment when the Indian foreign policy will call a spade a spade, and name the conflict -- not 'war in Ukraine', but what it is, 'Russian aggression against Ukraine'," he said.