Trump demands that the European Union stop buying Russian oil

5 September 09:59

US President Donald Trump told European leaders on Thursday that Europe should stop buying Russian oil because it helps Russia finance its war against Ukraine. This was stated by a White House spokesman, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing Reuters.

Trump joined a conference call of the “Coalition of the Willing” states led by French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement with Russia.

“The meeting of the Coalition of the Willing was about security guarantees for Ukraine. President Trump questioned their seriousness as long as they continue to fuel the Russian economy and war. The president made it clear that this is not his war, and the Europeans must also step up,”

– said the White House official.

“President Trump emphasized that Europe must stop buying Russian oil, which is funding the war – after all, Russia has received 1.1 billion euros from fuel sales to the EU in one year,”

– the administration official added.

At the same time, Trump himself refrained from imposing new sanctions against Russia and China, the main buyer of Russian oil. But he did increase tariffs on American imports from India, another major consumer of Russian energy.

Trump warned of the possibility of sanctions against countries that buy oil from Russia, but did not impose direct tariffs against Russia when he announced broad tariffs against most countries

Nevertheless, he said during the conversation that European leaders should also put pressure on China for its financing of the Russian military machine.

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How the EU is “fighting” Russian oil

Throughout the years of full-scale war, the European Union has been successfully buying Russian energy. To make it look less bloodthirsty, a price ceiling mechanism was invented and the price of Russian oil was set at $60 per barrel. This means that any EU state that buys Russian oil can only buy it at this price or lower. Thanks to this mechanism, the EU argues, Europe has Russian energy resources, but Russia’s profits from this are significantly limited.

on September 3, the European Union’s decision to reduce the price ceiling for Russian oil to 47.6 dollars per barrel came into effect.

The European Union traditionally assumes that such a measure will hit Russian oil revenues hard. Instead, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), the numbers are not even what Trump says, but 200 times higher. According to the CREA, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the European Union has bought 213 billion euros worth of energy from Russia. Of this, 105 billion euros were paid for oil.