Ukrainian presidential advisor says the West is financing Russia's invasion with 'bloody money' from oil and natural gas purchases

A top economic advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNBC that countries that imported oil and natural gas from Russia were ultimately financing the invasion of Ukraine.

International governments have imposed massive sanctions on Russia in order to bring its economy to its knees and cut off funding for its military. The measures include blocking transactions from the central bank of Russia.

Many countries, particularly in Europe, rely on Russia for oil and natural gas.

Zelensky told CNBC on Monday that countries buying Russia's oil and natural gas were responsible for financing Russia's military actions.

Ustenko said it was important to cut off them from the money.

Russia has the largest reserves of natural gas. The European Union gets 40% of its natural gas from Russia, and the country sold about $100 billion worth of oil and gas to Europe in 2021, according to estimates from William Jackson, an economist at Capital Economics.

Russia is the third-biggest oil producer after the US and Saudi Arabia, accounting for 12% of global oil production.

The West is hesitant to stop imports from Russia because they would need to find other sources and prices could go up.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC Sunday that the US was in discussions with Europe about banning the import of Russian oil. His comments helped push the price of oil up.

Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on state television Monday that a ban on Russian oil would cause catastrophic consequences for the global market and cause oil to surge to $300 per barrel if not more.

He warned that Russia could cut off gas to Europe if it wanted to. Russia sent troops into Ukraine, which led to Germany stopping plans for the Nord Stream 2 line.

Just days after Shell said it would limit business with the country, it apologized for purchasing a cargo of crude Russian oil. The company plans to close all of its service stations in Russia and withdraw from the oil and gas industry.

Shell said at the time of the purchase that it would continue to choose alternatives to Russian oil wherever possible, but it would not happen overnight because of how significant Russia is to global supply.