Russian Iskander-M Missile Strike Ukrainian Drone Launchers In Sumy, Kharkiv: Video
Source: TOI.in
Russia released footage of Iskander missile strikes destroying Ukrainian drone launchers in Sumy and Kharkiv, just as Ukraine claimed a major cross-border drone offensive on Russian airbases. Ukraine says it damaged or destroyed 40 Russian bombers—including Tu-22s and Tu-95s—and even struck an A-50 radar plane. Fires were reported at the Olenya and Belaya airbases. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian special operation named "Pavutyna" reportedly hit a Russian military unit in Siberia's Irkutsk region, marking one of Kyiv's deepest strikes into Russian territory.
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Indian Express
20 minutes ago
- Indian Express
A reminder for Trump: US wanted India to buy Russian crude to keep oil market stable, prices in check
US President Donald Trump seems frustrated with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, clearly wanting the over three-and-half-year-old war to end, while Putin appears unyielding. The American president, meanwhile, believes he has a lever the he can use to push Putin's buttons. That lever is India's significant oil imports from Russia. Trump has been berating India over its Russian oil imports and pressuring New Delhi into cutting down on imports from Moscow in the hope that threatening or penalising a key trade partner would force the Kremlin's hand into ending the war in Ukraine. While Trump evidently finds it convenient to go after India on the issue at a time when New Delhi and Washington are locked in tense trade pact negotiations, it is worth noting that the US had a major role to play in India ramping up oil imports from Russia, for which New Delhi is now being vilified by Trump and his administration. Over the course of the war in Ukraine, US officials have publicly stated that India's purchase of Russian oil had Washington's endorsement, at least implicitly. In his latest salvo, Trump on Monday said that threatened that he will 'substantially' raise tariffs on New Delhi for profiting from exporting fuels derived from Russian oil. Trump's latest attack came just days after he announced 25 per cent tariffs and an unspecified 'penalty' on India for its defence and energy imports from Russia. Responding sharply to Trump's remarks, India said that while it has been targeted by the US and the European Union for importing oil from Russia, these imports began as its traditional supplies were diverted to Europe, and the US at that time 'actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets stability'. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2024, Moscow's share in New Delhi's oil imports was less than 2 per cent. The reasons were obvious: Russia was a far-away geography and already had established markets where a bulk of its crude was exported. India, on the other hand, depended significantly on West Asian suppliers like Iraq and Saudi Arabia, which are located close by. With much of the West shunning Russian crude following the invasion, Russia began offering discounts on its oil to willing buyers. Indian refiners were quick to avail the opportunity, leading to Russia—earlier a peripheral supplier of oil to India—emerging as India's biggest source of crude within a matter of months, displacing the traditional West Asian suppliers. Russia now accounts for 35-40 per cent of India's total oil imports by volume. As Europe decided to stop the import of refined petroleum fuels from Russia, Indian refiners increased fuel exports to the continent. Apart from alleging that India was helping fund the war in Ukraine by buying Russian oil, critics of India's oil and fuel trade argued that the country's refiners were facilitating a backdoor entry into Europe for fuels made from Russian crude. There was, however, nothing illegitimate about this trade as there was no specific ban on fuel imports from countries that were buying Russian oil. That ban has now been announced by the EU, and is slated to take effect from January 2026. Despite the noise from sections of the West against India over the country's hefty purchases of Russian crude, this shift in oil and petroleum product trade had Washington's blessings, as the US wanted energy markets to remain stable and well-supplied. In a recent interaction with CNBC International, global energy expert and Rapidan Energy Group President Bob McNally said that it was the Biden administration that 'begged' India to buy Russian crude to keep global energy prices in check. 'The Indians must be having some confusion (due to Trump's stance) because Joe Biden went to India after the invasion of Russia and begged them to take Russian oil…they begged India, 'Please take the oil', so that crude prices would remain low, and they did. Now we're flipping around, saying, 'What are you doing taking all this Russian oil?' The point is Trump is serious…he is frustrated with Putin,' said McNally, who served as the Special Assistant to the President on the White House National Economic Council and Senior Director for International Energy on the National Security Council during George W Bush's first term as US President. India's actions in line with US policy: Biden era officials Various US government officials during the Biden presidency also publicly acknowledged that India's actions helped balance the international oil market, and were in line with what the US wanted in order to keep the global market well-supplied. Had most of the Russian oil gone off the market—as happened with Iran and Venezuela—international oil prices would have shot up, which would have hit the global economy that was still fragile coming out of the pandemic. At an event in May 2024, the then US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said, 'Actually, they (India) bought Russian oil because we wanted somebody to buy Russian oil at a price cap. That was not a violation or anything. It was actually the design of the policy because as a commodity we didn't want oil prices going up, and they fulfilled that.' Garcetti was correct, as Rusian oil was and continues to be sanction-free, and only a price cap of $60 per barrel was introduced in December 2022 on seaborne Russian crude by the US and its allies. The cap prohibits export of Russian seaborne crude at over $60 per barrel if the trade involves Western shipping or insurance services. Oil importers like India, which are not part of the price cap coalition comprising G7 countries and their allies, are not bound by the price cap as long as their purchase of Russian oil does not involve any shipping or insurance service from providers in the coalition countries. In April last year, senior US officials had said at a New Delhi event that the US neither expected India to reduce its oil imports from Russia and had not even requested it to do so. The then US Treasury Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Eric Van Nostrand had said that the objective of the sanctions and G7 price cap regime was not to push Russian crude out of the market, but to keep it flowing while limiting Kremlin's revenue from oil exports, which in turn impaired Russia's ability to fund the war in Ukraine. 'The price cap is designed to leave Russia with only bad options…We want him (Putin) to choose between three bad things: selling with coalition services under the price cap, selling outside the price cap, or shutting his oil in and not putting it to market. With a strong and robust price cap regime, Putin is going to prefer to sell as much as he can outside the price cap. But in order to maximise his sales outside the price cap, when a large part of the global coalition is already involved in the price cap, he is going to have to offer it cheaper,' Nostrand said. Anna Morris, the then US Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime, said at the same event that from a technical standpoint, Russian oil once refined into petroleum fuels and products could no longer be considered of Russian origin, dismissing the argument that India refiners were facilitating Russian petroleum's entry into Europe. 'I also want to specify that once Russian oil is refined, from a technical perspective it is no longer Russian oil…If it is refined in a country and then sent forward, from a sanctions perspective that is an import from the country of purchase, it is not an import from Russia,' Morris said. While the Biden administration seemed satisfied with the price cap, while letting Russian oil flow, Trump has taken a much more aggressive stance, threatening financial costs on importers of Russian energy. Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More
India.com
20 minutes ago
- India.com
'Will raise tariffs on India substantially in...': US Presidents threatens India days after imposing 25% tariff
(Image: Reuters) Washington: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he is going to further raise tariffs on India in the next 24 hours, after announcing 25 per cent tariffs from August 7. In an interview with CNBC, Trump said he will raise tariffs on India, revising the earlier settled rate of 25 per cent. 'India has the highest tariffs. We do very little business with India. We settled on 25 per cent, but I think I am going to raise that substantially within the next 24 hours,' the US President was quoted as saying. He claimed that India is buying Russian oil and fuelling the Russian war machine. This comes a day after the US President stated that he will 'substantially' raise US tariffs on India, accusing it of buying massive amounts of Russian oil and selling it for big profits. New Delhi has called the threat of additional tariffs 'unjustified and unreasonable.' Russia also responded strongly on Tuesday, labelling such US pressure tactics as 'illegitimate'. It backed India and, while criticising Trump over his threats to increase tariffs on New Delhi for buying oil from Moscow, contended that 'sovereign nations must have the right to choose their trading partners'. 'Russia notes US threats against India but does not consider such statements to be legitimate. Sovereign countries must have and have the right to choose their own trading partners, partners in trade and economic cooperation, and to choose those trade and economic cooperation regimes that are in the interests of a particular country,' the Russian President's spokesman Dmitri Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia's state-owned news agency TASS. After Trump threatened to impose hefty tariffs on New Delhi, the Indian government on Monday said that the targeting of the country by the US over Russian oil purchase is unjustified and unreasonable. A statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson said that like any major economy, 'India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security'. According to the government, India has been targeted by the United States and the European Union for importing oil from Russia after the commencement of the Ukraine conflict. 'In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict. The United States at that time actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets' stability,' it emphasised. –
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Business Standard
20 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Markets fall after Trump's additional tariff threat on Russian crude oil
Indian equity benchmarks declined on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump renewed his threat to impose additional tariffs on India over its oil purchases from Russia. General caution ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) monetary policy decision on Wednesday also weighed on sentiment. The Sensex ended the session at 80,710, down 309 points or 0.4 per cent. The Nifty closed at 24,650, a decline of 73 points or 0.3 per cent. The total market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell by ₹83,000 crore to end at ₹448 trillion. Trump on Monday said he would substantially raise tariffs on India to penalise it for importing Russian oil, although he did not specify by how much. His latest announcement follows a 25 per cent tariff on Indian imports announced last week — among the steepest for a major economy. In a social media post, the US President said India was not only buying large quantities of Russian oil but also selling it on the open market for significant profits, disregarding the humanitarian toll of the war in Ukraine. He had earlier given an August 8 deadline for Russia to reach a truce and threatened secondary sanctions on countries continuing to purchase Russian energy. Ukraine's allies argue such purchases support the Russian economy and ease pressure on the government to end its military campaign, now entering its fourth year. India's external affairs ministry responded by stating that the country began purchasing Russian oil only after traditional suppliers diverted shipments to Europe following the onset of the war. The ministry said the US had, at the time, encouraged such imports. It called the targeting 'unjustified and unreasonable' and asserted that India would take all necessary steps to safeguard its national interests and economic security. Relations between the two countries have been strained by the tariff imposition following months of negotiations. India has also taken exception to Trump's claim that he helped resolve its conflict with Pakistan earlier this year. Looking ahead, trade negotiations with the US and the outcome of the RBI policy meeting will influence the near-term market trajectory. 'Investors are now awaiting the upcoming RBI policy decision, where the market has marginal expectations of a rate cut in the near term. Currently, the preferences of investors are for domestic consumption-driven stocks and sectors holding limited volatility to external factors,' said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services. Market breadth was weak, with 2,371 stocks declining and 1,672 advancing. ICICI Bank, down 1.3 per cent, was the biggest contributor to the Sensex's fall, followed by Reliance Industries, which slipped 1.4 per cent. 'The near-term downtrend of Nifty remains intact, and the market is expected to slide towards the 24,500–24,400 levels in the next few sessions. However, tomorrow's RBI mid-quarter policy outcome is expected to provide clear direction. Immediate resistance is placed at the 24,800 level,' said Nagaraj Shetti, senior technical research analyst at HDFC Securities.
