The UK will not follow the US in easing sanctions on Russian oil, a minister insisted today.
Energy minister Michael Shanks warned against doing anything that will help Vladimir Putin‘s ‘war machine’ against Ukraine.
The comments came after Donald Trump‘s administration issued a temporary waiver lifting restrictions on the purchase of Russian oil and petrol already at sea.
The decision comes amid rising alarm at the fallout from the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has limited supplies and sent energy prices spiking around the globe.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was a ‘short-term measure’ until April 11 to promote ‘stability in global energy markets’.
The announcement was welcomed by Russia, which is thought to have around 100million barrels of oil currently in transit.
Donald Trump’s administration has issued a temporary waiver lifting restrictions on the purchase of Russian oil and petrol already at sea
Mr Trump had a call with Vladimir Putin (pictured) earlier this week as chaos in the Middle East continues
Mr Bessent said the temporary waiver would last until 11 April and applied only to ‘permit countries’.
‘This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government,’ he said in a post on X.
Mr Trump had a call with Putin earlier this week as chaos in the Middle East continues.
The oil price rose again overnight and is hovering around $100 a barrel, despite the US and other G7 countries dumping unprecedented amounts of reserves on to markets.
Touring broadcast studios this morning, Mr Shanks did not directly criticise the US decision.
But he told Sky news: ‘The UK has been really clear that our sanctions on Russia stay in place. And look, this is a moment where I suspect in the Kremlin they are looking at this as an opportunity to fix some of their ailing economy.
‘That is a great shame, because we have to do everything that we possibly can to make sure that we are bringing all pressure to bear on Russia so that we can win this war in Ukraine.
‘We will keep up our sanctions, and we’ll continue to do what we are doing around the shadow fleet, and we’re not going to change our position on that at all.
‘It’s really important that we don’t do anything that can assist the Russian war machine right in the middle of a really critical moment in this conflict against Ukraine.’
Russia’s oil envoy Kirill Dmitriev said the US was ‘effectively acknowledging the obvious’, that ‘without Russian oil, the global energy market cannot remain stable’.
He added: ‘Amid the growing energy crisis, further easing of restrictions on Russian energy sources appears increasingly inevitable.’
The aftermath of a recent Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine
