US President Donald Trump said he’s prepared to move ahead with “major” sanctions on Russian oil if Nato countries do the same.

Trump, a day after he said he was losing patience with President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, said he’s “ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all Nato Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all Nato Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” in a post on his Truth Social site early Saturday.

India is the second largest buyer of Russian oil after China and also a significant re-exporter. EU is one of the largest buyers of refined petroleum products, some of which are processed from Russian crude, from India.

India now faces a 50 per cent tariff on 66 per cent of its merchandise exports to the US for buying Russian crude. Even though Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have recently exchanged conciliatory words on social media, rekindling hope of resumption of bilateral trade talks, US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick later said the trade issue would only be sorted out once India stops buying Russian oil.

Trump’s comment on Saturday comes on the back of US urging allies in the G-7 to impose tariffs as high as 100 per cent on China and India for their purchases of Russian oil, as part of an effort to convince Putin to end Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.

“This, plus Nato, as a group, placing 50 per cent to 100 per cent TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR,” Trump wrote.

The US President, whose efforts to quickly end the three-year long Russia-Ukraine war have so far yielded no result despite his two back-to-back yet separate meetings with President Putin and Zelensky, appears to be miffed with America’s allies in Nato and G-7, for not doing enough to cripple Kremlin financially.

“As you know, Nato’s commitment to WIN has been far less than 100 per cent, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” he added.

On Friday, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer separately exhorted G-7 members that they should join the US in imposing tariffs on countries that purchase oil from Russia.

“Only with a unified effort that cuts off the revenues funding Putin’s war machine at the source will we be able to apply sufficient economic pressure to end the senseless killing,” Bessent and Greer said.

While India as buyer of Russian oil has attracted Trump’s wrath, the US President has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on Chinese imports over China’s purchases of Russian oil, as his administration navigates a delicate trade truce with
Beijing.