Zelensky urged major independent oil trader to stop supplies from Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the world's largest independent oil trader, the Dutch company Vitol, to stop supplying Russian oil and thus stop financing the mass murder of innocent Ukrainians.
According to Censor.NЕТ with reference to President's Office, the corresponding letter on behalf of the head of state was sent to the company by the President's economic adviser Oleg Ustenko.
In the letter, Ustenko asked the oil-trading company to let him know when it would ship the last barrel of Russian oil and exactly how much it would be shipped by that date.
Zelensky first asked Vitol to end business relations with Russia in March of this year. In April, the oil trader stated that the volume of Russian oil "will decrease significantly in the second quarter as current contractual obligations will decrease." It was also reported that the company plans to "withdraw from the Russian market" and stop transporting Russian oil by the end of the year.
In the letter, Ustenko stressed that these promises had not been kept. Refinitiv shipping data collected by Global Witness showed that Vitol chartered more than 11 million barrels of oil through Russian ports in June. And since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the company has chartered more than 38 million barrels of oil from Russian ports at a cost of about $3.21 billion (an average of more than 9 million barrels a month).
"Vitol has been the largest Western trader of Russian oil transported by sea since the February 24 full-scale invasion. This is a brazen profiteering of bloody oil that finances the killing of Ukrainian civilians," said the Ukrainian presidential adviser.
As Sam Leon, head of data investigations at Global Witness, noted, Vitol has been one of the main Western conduits for Russian President Vladimir Putin's deadly energy trade since the invasion. "Nothing but the toughest embargo on Russian oil will stop them from profiting at the expense of the Ukrainian people," he is convinced.
In addition to Russian oil, Vitol exports Kazakh oil and oil products through Russian ports.
In April, Vitol said it would not enter into any new agreements on Russian oil and oil products. The oil trader has a stake in "Vostok Oil", a major Russian oil and gas development project in the Arctic. The company said it had agreed to sell its shares and was "in the process of completing the legal formalities" in that regard.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the U.S. has banned Russian oil imports, and Britain intends to stop them by the end of this year. Oil companies are under pressure to sever ties with Russia.
The Verkhovna Rada has promised to sell its stake in the Russian state-owned company "Rosneft". Shell is also selling its Russian assets. Last week, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that could force Shell to give up its stake in a huge Russian gas plant.
