Ukrainian lawmakers called on the United States to block purchases of Russian energy by India and China

Profile photo: China is increasingly involved in Siberian energy development. A petrochemical plant in Siberia, Russia.

A senior Ukrainian lawmaker on Wednesday (Feb. 2) called for secondary sanctions by the United States if China and India continue to buy Russian energy, and urged full unity against Moscow’s invasion.

Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Ukrainian parliament, also called for stronger ties with Taiwan during a visit to Washington. Beijing claims sovereignty over democratic and self-governing Taiwan.

Merezhko said he faced criticism at home that taking a tougher stance on oil purchases could push China to strengthen its support for Russia. Beijing is not currently providing military aid to Moscow.

“I’ve been trying to explain that this is not the problem. China is not afraid of Ukraine; China is afraid of U.S. sanctions,” he told a correspondent for the State Department Correspondents’ Association.

“This means that the United States can and should prevent China from helping Russia, preferably with secondary sanctions, to prevent China from financing the Russian economy and the Russian military machine by buying Russian oil and gas,” he said.

The ruling party lawmaker said he had lived in New Delhi and found India’s purchase of Russian oil “painful,” but he also supported sanctions against India, the Russian buyer.

“They should be consistent. This is a global conflict between the democratic and free world and authoritarian regimes,” he said. “And no compromise should be made because of material and economic gains.”

China and India are two countries in the world with billions of people, both heavily dependent on imported energy and have historical ties to Russia.

The United States has previously imposed years of secondary sanctions on foreign companies that buy oil from Iran.

Merezhko is visiting Washington with his Polish and Lithuanian counterparts, who want to push U.S. congressmen and others to support Ukraine.

The United States has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, and despite calls for spending cuts from several lawmakers from the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, the United States approved billions of dollars in arms aid to Ukraine, said Zygimantas,

Chairman of the Lithuanian parliament’s foreign affairs committee Pavilionis warned that easing pressure on Russia would have serious consequences.

“If we do nothing, Vilnius will become Bucha in six or seven years,” he said, referring to the Lithuanian capital and towns near Kiev, where Ukrainians dressed in civilian clothing were found shooting with their hands tied behind their backs during the Russian retreat.

The tiny nation of Lithuania has been at the forefront of relations with Taiwan, and allowing Taipei to open offices within its territory has angered China.

“China is the only country on the planet that can completely change the rules of the game — change everything and turn the world into a concentration camp,” he said.

“If the Americans are ruled by fear and they don’t defend Ukraine, we wake up the next morning and find that something happened in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region will be attacked,” he said.