Targeting Russia's oil and gas revenue is crucial to weakening its war in Ukraine, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker told Newsmax on Sunday, warning that China and India remain key enablers of Moscow's military machine.
"The oil is central, oil and gas," Volker said on Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "Russia has state-owned enterprises or large private enterprises that the government gets massive revenue from, from the sales of oil and gas. This goes into the Kremlin budget."
This means that President Donald Trump's Thursday meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea comes at a pivotal moment, as Washington tightens sanctions on two of Russia's largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft.
Volker noted that while the U.S. is a major energy exporter and Europe has sharply reduced its reliance on Russian fuel, China and India continue to buy Russian crude in massive quantities.
India, he added, "is actually reprocessing it and then selling it back to Europe as though it's Indian, even though it originates in Russia."
Volker said if the new sanctions "bite," the impact on Russian President Vladimir Putin's ability to sustain the war could be significant.
Meanwhile, Volker recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following Zelenskyy's White House talks with Trump, underscoring the growing alignment between Washington and Kyiv as pressure mounts on Moscow's allies.
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