Trump warns of oil tariffs on Tussia over Ukraine conflict

On Sunday, Trump stated on NBC News that he is "very angry" with Vladimir Putin for questioning the legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelensky's presidency. He also threatened to introduce "secondary tariffs" on Russian oil.

"If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia," he said.

"That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25- to 50-point tariff on all oil," Trump stated. He emphasized that the tariffs could come into effect within a month if a ceasefire agreement is not reached.

Imposing such tariffs would primarily impact other countries that continue to trade with Russia in oil and export their goods to the USA — including India and China. Both of these countries imported millions of barrels of Russian oil daily in 2024, and in August, India surpassed China in this regard. Even these countries have started to turn away from Russian raw materials, replacing them with, among others, Brazilian oil. This is due to sanctions involving Russian tankers, which were introduced by the Joe Biden administration.

The United States itself, already in 2022, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, banned the import of Russian resources, including gas, oil, and coal. Recently, Trump also decided that sanctioned Russian banks could not use the American financial system to process transactions related to the trade of oil and gas. This is intended to significantly hinder Russia's ability to trade its resources in dollars.