The United Kingdom government announced it has eased sanctions on imports of Russian jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries, amid soaring fuel prices caused by the Iran war and prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The trade licence that came into effect on Wednesday is of “indefinite duration,” according to the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, and will be periodically reviewed. It will allow the UK to import Russian crude oil refined in third countries, such as India and Turkiye.

Temporary Licences and Global Response

The government also issued a temporary licence loosening sanctions on liquefied natural gas originating from certain Russian plants. The UK and other Western countries imposed strict sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, targeting oil exports as well as more than 3,000 individuals and companies. This new decision follows a US sanctions waiver for Russian oil cargoes already at sea, which was extended Monday for the second time as the war against Iran squeezes global oil supplies.

Reactions from the EU and UK Officials

EU economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said it was not a time to “ease pressure on Russia.” UK Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said the changes are “for a time-limited period and on a very specific issue.” The European Union criticised the US waiver extension on Tuesday at a meeting of G7 finance ministers that the UK also attended.

The UK has been one of Ukraine’s strongest allies since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and the government insists its sanctions against Russia remain among the toughest in the world. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, denounced the move. “After 18 months of ‘standing up to Putin’ the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries,” she said on X.

Concerns and Criticism

Finance ministers from the United States, UK. Other G7 countries issued a joint statement on Tuesday reaffirming “our unwavering commitment to continue to impose severe costs on Russia in response to its continued aggression against Ukraine.” The UK government has loosened strict sanctions on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise. The waiver begins on Wednesday and reflects growing supply concerns over certain fuels due to the effective blockade of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.

Some sanctions on the transport of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) were also lifted; the government said that overall sanctions had got tougher but extra flexibilities were required. A similar move by the US was widely criticised — European jet fuel prices more than doubled after the war started but are now around half higher while UK pump prices continue to rise.

Several airlines operating in the UK and around the world have cancelled flights and raised prices in response to sky-high jet fuel prices; For years the UK led international efforts to put economic pressure on Russia for its war on Ukraine. Only on Tuesday it signed a G7 statement reaffirming its “unwavering commitment” to impose “severe costs” on Russia.

The government announced in October that it planned to ban oil products, such as diesel and jet fuel, which had been refined from Russian crude oil in third countries. Easing sanctions now will effectively allow imports of jet fuel from India, which was previously a key supplier to UK and Europe; a lot of Russian crude is also refined in Turkey. Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson told BBC Breakfast the “small and specific” and “time-limited” change was being made to “protect the security of supply for really important foundational goods in our economy such as jet fuel.”

While the government remained “steadfast in its commitment to supporting Ukraine,” he said, it had to “make the right and sensible decisions” when it came to vital products so that it could support families up and down the country struggling with the cost of living. However, Robin Mills, chief executive of Dubai-based energy consultancy Qamar Energy, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was not a good move to back down on the sanctions and that it would not bring down prices in the UK.

“It is sending a negative signal that sanctions on Russia are potentially weaker because of the crisis in the gulf and that countries including the UK and the US will back down on sanctions because of other issues,” he said. He added he doubted that “there was ever a real prospect of physical shortages” of jet fuel. “In that sense this measure looks unnecessary, its not going to bring down prices but its also not going to attack the shortage that probably wasn’t going to happen anyway,” he said.

The Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Dame Emily Thornberry, said she opposed the government’s decision to loosen some sanctions on Russian oil. She told Today she had heard from people in Ukraine overnight and they were “very disappointed.” “We’re talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been