Indian Ambassador to the UK: Russian oil? Do you want us to turn off the economy?

India's High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswamy, criticized Western calls to abandon Russian oil and reminded European countries of hypocrisy.

"We have relations (with Russia) that are based on a number of indicators. One of them is our long—standing security relations, which go back to an era when some of our Western partners did not sell us weapons, but sold them to neighboring countries that use them only to attack us," the ambassador said on the Times Radio station.

"Secondly, today we have an energy connection, which is the result of the fact that everyone else buys energy from sources from which we used to buy. Thus, we were forced out of the energy markets, and the cost of energy carriers increased. In addition, we are the third largest energy consumer in the world and import more than 80% of our products. What would you like us to do? Shut down our economy?"  Vikram Doraiswamy remarked.

He added that India sees how other countries maintain relations with countries that are a source of difficulties for India for their own convenience.

The day before The EU adopted the 18th package of sanctions and banned the import of petroleum products from Russian oil from January 26, 2026. Brussels has also imposed restrictions on the Indian Nayara Energ, co-owned by Rosneft. The company owns the second largest refinery in the country.

Indian refineries are the main exporter of diesel fuel to the EU — about 20 million tons per year.