Chinese state-owned oil companies have halted purchases of Russian oil shipped by sea after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow's two largest oil companies, trade sources said on Thursday.

Refiners in India, the largest buyer of Russian oil shipped by sea, are also preparing to reduce Russian crude imports to comply with sanctions imposed by the United States over the invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow under pressure

A sharp decline in demand for Russian oil from Russia's two largest buyers is putting pressure on Moscow and forcing the world's largest importers to seek alternative sources of supply, driving up global prices.

– writes Reuters, citing informants.

1.4 million barrels of oil

While China imports roughly 1.4 million barrels of Russian oil per day by sea, most of this is purchased by independent refiners, including smaller operators. However, estimates of purchases by state-owned refiners vary widely.

India and China are expected to turn to other sources of supply, pushing up prices for unsanctioned oil from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, traders said.

The cancelled meeting

As previously reported, US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he had canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the United States imposed severe sanctions on Russia. “It just didn’t feel right,” Donald Trump told reporters about the cancellation of the meeting during a press conference in the Oval Office.

I felt like we weren't going to get where we needed to go - so I gave up, but we'll keep it in the future

– he added.

Last week, Donald Trump said he planned to meet with the Russian president in Budapest after a “very productive” phone call. However, CNN reported earlier this week that the quick summit had stalled, with an administration official saying there were “no plans” for a summit in the near future.

Zelensky says China not interested in Kyiv's victory

We also wrote about Volodymyr Zelenskyy holding a press conference in Brussels after his participation in the EU summit, where he spoke about how the past week did not end with a bad result for Ukraine and declared: Without Ukraine, there will be no meeting in Hungary between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

China was also mentioned at the press conference, with Zelensky declaring that he would not engage in dialogue with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He recalled that they had sometimes spoken on the phone, where his Chinese counterpart had promised him that he would not provide weapons to Russia. “I know one thing: China helps Russia and does not help Ukraine and is not interested in our victory. And they are not interested in a weak Russia either,” the Ukrainian president said, and he believes that other countries also see China's role in this way.

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