Ukraine asks the world's largest energy traders to stop handling Russian oil as they've continued to move millions of barrels since the war
- Ukraine has called on the world's leading energy traders to stop handling Russian crude.
- "The fact is that traders are trading and they are helping Russia to receive this blood money," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's adviser told the FT.
Ukraine's government has called on the world's largest energy traders to stop moving Russian oil, saying these revenues are being used to fund Moscow's weaponry in its war.
Oleg Ustenko, advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, recently wrote to commodity traders Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore, and Gunvor, demanding that they stop handling Russian hydrocarbons, the Financial Times reported Sunday.
Between the outbreak of the war and the end of March, the four companies moved 33 tankers carrying about 20 million barrels of Russian crude and oil products including diesel, the report said, citing Refinitiv data.
These figures include oil shipped from Russian ports, but produced in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
"The fact is that traders are trading and they are helping Russia to receive this blood money," Ustenko told the FT.
"They are in this cycle of financing war crimes and genocide against Ukrainian citizens."
Oil is one of Russia's key sources of revenue. It is the world's third-largest crude exporter, but that statistic may have well changed after the US and UK banned imports.
The European Union, which is heavily reliant on Russia for oil, gets around 3.1 million barrels per day from the country, accounting for 30% of its needs. While the bloc agreed last week to ban imports of Russian coal, it stopped short of banning oil and gas.
Russia's combined energy exports to Europe alone, excluding coal, provide Moscow with about $850 million in revenue a day, Reuters reported, citing think tank Bruegel.
Many leaders of the bloc want to enforce an oil embargo, but Germany and Hungary have warned the consequences of doing so might be devastating.
As a result of no direct ban, traders in the EU aren't forced to stop handling Russian crude. But many banks and shipping companies have opted to "self-sanction," or refused to conduct business with Russian entities.
Reports of potential Russian war crimes committed on Ukrainian civilians have raised calls for an oil embargo, and EU officials are set to make this their next focus in another round of economic sanctions.
Heads of the biggest commodity traders said at an FT Summit in March that they had frozen investments and stopped undertaking new business in Russia, but planned to still execute legal long-term contracts.
All four companies told the FT that they condemn the war in Ukraine, and plan to phase out trading of Russian oil.
Glencore said it would continue "to honour its legal obligations under pre-existing contracts, subject to meeting all applicable sanctions in accordance with our Sanctions Policy and where it is feasible and safe to perform these contracts."
Trafigura declined to comment further on the FT report. Vitol and Gunvor didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.