Ukraine war latest: Zelensky calls upon cities to ‘drive out’ Russian occupiers

Ukraine has demanded that western oil majors, together with BP and Shell, stop buying and selling Russian oil within the newest push to mount stress on power corporations to chop off a key supply of financing to the Kremlin.

Oleg Ustenko, chief financial adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote letters to the west’s largest power corporations requesting them to chop off all enterprise dealings with Russia together with the commerce of its oil.

“On this existential second for our nation, we’re asking you to terminate all enterprise dealings with the Russian fossil gasoline trade to chop off the circulate of money which is financing the mass homicide of harmless individuals,” Ustenko wrote in letters to BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron and ExxonMobil.

BP, Shell and Exxon have introduced plans to dump stakes in Russian investments however together with commodity merchants, they’ve largely continued to carry barrels of the nation’s oil that they’re obliged to take underneath long-term contracts.

Shell has stated it would halt all purchases of Russian oil on the spot market and section out contractual volumes finally.

The letters additionally stated Ukraine would set up a bunch to trace tankers choosing up Russian oil in partnership with activists, teachers, civil society teams and information suppliers.

The plea got here as Brent crude, the worldwide oil benchmark, jumped 6.6 per cent on Monday to $115 a barrel, after Saudi Arabian officers stated that they’d shirk duty for any future shortages of power globally.

EU officers indicated on Monday that they’d focus on sanctions on Russian power exports, regardless of opposition from Germany and the Netherlands, which consider the bloc is simply too depending on the nation’s oil to interrupt clear.