India has saved over $17 billion since 2022 by purchasing cheaper Russian crude. More importantly, its imports have played a stabilising role in the global market.
Russian oil is once again flowing into Central Europe after a sudden disruption to the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline after it was bombed multiple times in Russia by Ukraine
The Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska was telling. It exposed the American President's hypocrisy as Putin revealed US-Russia bilateral trade expanded by over 20 per cent.
While a strong response from Russia to the Ukrainian offensive is almost certain, what is even more certain is the end of hopes of any ceasefire between Russian and a NATO-backed Ukraine in the near future.
Ukraine smuggled hundreds of drones into Russia, hide them in wooden cabins loaded on trucks, got the trucks driven to the airbases, and remotely launched the drones. The trucks then self-destructed.
Donald Trump’s frustration with Putin, however, is not limited to mere rhetoric; rather, the US President is contemplating imposing secondary sanctions against Russia.
Interestingly, Trump has also backtracked from his statement in which he committed to bringing the Ukraine-Russia war ongoing for the last three years to an end.