UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on the world's largest independent oil trader - Vitol - to stop shipping Russian oil, accusing it of 'brazen profiteering from blood oil', reports the UK's Guardian.
On behalf of the President Zelenskiy's chief economic adviser, Oleg Ustenko, asked Vitol to state when it would ship its last barrel of Russian oil and how much oil it would ship until that date.
President Zelenskiy asked Vitol to close its business dealings with Russia in March 'to cut off the cashflow' that he said had financed 'the mass murder of innocent people'.
The Geneva-based oil trader said in April that volumes of Russian oil handled 'will diminish significantly in the second quarter as current term contractual obligations decline' and that it planned to 'retreat from the Russian market'. It expects to have stopped transporting Russian crude by the end of the year.
But in a letter to Vitol's chief executive, Russell Hardy, Mr Ustenko said: 'Those pledges are in tatters.'
Refinitiv shipping data compiled by Global Witness showed Vitol, which employs the former British junior foreign minister Alan Duncan and has offices in London near Buckingham Palace, chartered shipments of more than 11 million barrels of oil through ports in Russia in June.
Said Mr Ustenko: 'Vitol has been the largest western trader of seaborne Russian oil since the invasion. This is brazen profiteering from blood oil that is funding the murder of Ukrainian civilians.'
The shipments in June were made from ports including Ust-Luga near the Estonian border and St Petersburg on the Baltic Sea, and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. The shipments reached European hubs including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, from where the oil may have been moved on to other countries.
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On behalf of the President Zelenskiy's chief economic adviser, Oleg Ustenko, asked Vitol to state when it would ship its last barrel of Russian oil and how much oil it would ship until that date.
President Zelenskiy asked Vitol to close its business dealings with Russia in March 'to cut off the cashflow' that he said had financed 'the mass murder of innocent people'.
The Geneva-based oil trader said in April that volumes of Russian oil handled 'will diminish significantly in the second quarter as current term contractual obligations decline' and that it planned to 'retreat from the Russian market'. It expects to have stopped transporting Russian crude by the end of the year.
But in a letter to Vitol's chief executive, Russell Hardy, Mr Ustenko said: 'Those pledges are in tatters.'
Refinitiv shipping data compiled by Global Witness showed Vitol, which employs the former British junior foreign minister Alan Duncan and has offices in London near Buckingham Palace, chartered shipments of more than 11 million barrels of oil through ports in Russia in June.
Said Mr Ustenko: 'Vitol has been the largest western trader of seaborne Russian oil since the invasion. This is brazen profiteering from blood oil that is funding the murder of Ukrainian civilians.'
The shipments in June were made from ports including Ust-Luga near the Estonian border and St Petersburg on the Baltic Sea, and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. The shipments reached European hubs including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, from where the oil may have been moved on to other countries.
SeaNews Turkey