Ukrainian foreign minister Dymtro Kuleba on Tuesday publicly accused India of taking advantage of \u201cRussia\u2019s aggression\u201d against his country Ukraine to shore up India\u2019s oil reserves, accusing New Delhi of benefiting from the suffering of his compatriots.<\/p>\n
Kuleba also questioned India\u2019s insistence on describing as the \u201cwar in Ukraine\u201d what Ukrainians see as \u201cRussian aggression against Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n
He suggested that the least India could do while benefiting from \u201cour suffering\u201d was to help his country more. India has extended some humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since February 24, when the war began.<\/p>\n
Kuleba\u2019s comments came in an interview to NDTV a day after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar underlined that India\u2019s oil imports from Russia still remained a fraction of the European Union\u2019s purchase of Russian fossil fuel.<\/p>\n
Kuleba said: \u201cIt is not enough just to point fingers at the European Union and say, \u2018Oh, they are doing the same thing\u2019, because the core reason of India\u2019s opportunity to save money on oil and to buy more cheap oil and to solve its problems is not the fact that Europeans are buying Russian oil. It is the fact that Ukrainians are suffering from Russia\u2019s war and dying because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
India has increased its oil purchases from Russia since the war began in Ukraine<\/a>, taking advantage of the Russian offer of discounted oil \u201cin national interest\u201d.<\/p>\n Kuleba said: \u201cThe opportunity for India to buy Russian oil at a cheap price comes from the fact that Ukrainians are suffering from the Russian aggression and dying every day. They live in houses without heating, hot water, and without electricity. This fact we hope should be appreciated by those who make decisions to buy Russian oil.\u201d<\/p>\n The minister said that Ukraine was equally critical of any country \u2014 in Europe, Asia, or anywhere else \u2014 that was buying Russian oil in large quantities because Russia was using the money made from this trade to finance the war and kill Ukrainians.<\/p>\n Jaishankar had said on Monday: \u201cBetween February 24 and November 17, the EU imported more fossil fuel from Russia than the next 10 countries combined. The oil import in the EU is six times what India imports; gas is infinite times because we don\u2019t import it whereas the EU has imported gas worth 50 billion euros. Even coal imports from Russia by the EU is 50 percent more than what India has imported.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not the first time Jaishankar has blamed western capitals for engaging in doublespeak about India\u2019s oil purchases from Russia while the European<\/a> Union continues to buy larger amounts of Russian oil, gas, and coal.<\/p>\n While several countries opposed to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine had mounted public pressure on India in the early days to cut back on Russian oil purchases, that open prodding has eased in recent months. Kuleba had earlier too accused India of taking advantage of the crisis facing his country.<\/p>\n In August, he had said at a news conference: \u201cWhen India purchases Russian crude oil, they have to understand that the discount is paid by Ukrainian blood. Every barrel of Russian crude that India gets has Ukrainian blood in it. We are friendly and open to India. Ukraine supported the evacuation of Indian students. We expected more practical support from India to Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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