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U.S. President Donald Trump hit Russia’s two biggest oil companies with sanctions in his latest policy shift on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, prompting global oil prices to rise by 3% on Thursday (October 23, 2025).
Mr. Trump also reiterated his claim that India has agreed to “stop” buying oil from Russia and would bring its oil purchases down to “almost nothing” by the end of the year, and said he would persuade China to do the same. India and China are the two biggest buyers of Russian oil.
Indian refiners — including Reliance, the top Indian buyer of Russian crude — are poised to sharply curtail imports of Russian oil to comply with the new U.S. sanctions, industry sources said on Thursday.
‘Funding the Kremlin’s war’
The U.S. sanctions target oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, which between them account for more than 5% of global oil output. The U.S. Treasury has given companies until November 21 to wind down their transactions with the Russian oil producers.
“Given [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
Oil and gas revenue, currently down 21% year-on-year, accounts for a quarter of Russia’s budget and is the most important source of funding for its war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
Sharp reduction
Mr. Trump expressed confidence regarding India’s response to the sanctions. “India, as you know, has told me they are going to stop [buying Russian oil]… It’s a process. You can’t just stop… 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 [Narendra] Modi yesterday. They’ve been absolutely great,” the U.S. President told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Reliance Industries, which operates the world’s biggest refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, has a long-term deal to buy nearly 500,000 barrels per day of crude from Rosneft and also buys Russian oil from intermediaries. It now plans to reduce or cease imports of Russian oil, including halting purchases under its deal with Rosneft, people familiar with the matter said.
“Recalibration of Russian oil imports is ongoing and Reliance will be fully aligned to GOI [Government of India] guidelines,” a Reliance spokesman said in response to a query on whether the company plans to cut its crude imports from Russia.
Nayara Energy, another private Indian refiner whose biggest shareholder is Rosneft, also buys oil from the Russian state company, but did not respond to a request for comment on the sanctions.
State-owned oil refineries, including Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, are reviewing their Russian oil trade documents to ensure no supply will be coming directly from Rosneft and Lukoil, though trade sources said their purchases are typically made through intermediaries.
“There will be a massive cut. We don’t anticipate it will go to zero immediately as there will be some barrels coming into the market” via intermediaries, a refinery source said.
India-U.S. relations have been under severe stress after Mr. Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to a whopping 50%, including a 25% punitive duty for Indian purchases of discounted seaborne Russian crude, amounting to about 1.7 million barrels per day in the first nine months of this year. India has described the U.S. action as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”, but is now in the process of negotiating a trade deal with Washington that could dial down the tariffs in exchange for winding down Russian oil purchases.
The U.S. sanctions came after Mr. Trump cancelled a planned summit with Mr. Putin in Budapest, saying that it would not achieve the outcome he wanted. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova shrugged off the likely impact of the sanctions, saying Moscow had developed a “strong immunity” to such restrictions. Moscow’s main revenue source comes from taxing output, not exports, which is likely to soften the immediate impact of the sanctions on state finances.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the U.S. for the new sanctions, saying they were “very important” but that more pressure would be needed to get Moscow to agree to a ceasefire. European Union leaders are considering a plan to use frozen Russian assets to provide a 140 billion euro loan to Kyiv. Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital for a second night, injuring nine people, officials said, while Russian air defence forces were reported to have shot down 139 Ukrainian drones.
Published – October 23, 2025 10:49 pm IST
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U.S. sanctions Russian oil majors over Ukraine; Indian refiners poised to cut Russian crude buys
