The need to cap Russian oil prices is increasingly urgent as Moscow ramps up troops, says Ukrainian presidential advisor

• There's an urgent need for a Russian oil price cap as Moscow escalates its war, a top adviser to Ukraine's president told Reuters.
• "We need to cut off the regime's blood money that they're using to kill our people," said Oleg Ustenko, chief economic advisor to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The need to impose a limit on prices for Russian oil is becoming increasingly urgent as Moscow plans to deploy more troops to fight in Ukraine, a senior economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters in a report published Wednesday.

"Russia is putting up a last fight, so we have to be even more united, including on sanction policy," said Oleg Ustenko, chief economic advisor to Zelenskyy. "We need to cut off the regime's blood money that they're using to kill our people."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced Russia would mobilize more troops for its war in Ukraine. Moscow, whose army has suffered numerous setbacks during the invasion, plans to call up to 300,000 reservists. Putin also alluded to Russia's nuclear arsenal, saying the country would use all its resources "to defend our people."

The Group of Seven industrialized democracies earlier this month agreed to work on setting a price cap on Russian oil to curb Moscow's revenue. No announcement has yet been made on what the cap will be.

"We are moving quite fast with the price cap mechanism, the discussions are almost finalized," Ustenko told Reuters.

The G7 is aiming to launch the price cap by December 5, when the European Union will impose a partial ban on Russian oil imports. The idea is to ban services such as insurance to shippers that carry Russian oil above the price cap.

India and China have emerged as the top importers of Russian crude since the war started in late February. The two countries bought $9 billion in additional Russian crude in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, according to the Financial Times.

The price of Russia's Ural oil blend traded at $71.05 a barrel on Wednesday, below the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, at $87.74.