Previously introduced restrictions on the price of Russian oil, including the price cap have stopped working, even belated decisions that will affect the reduction of the Russian Federation's income from oil sales will be useful, believes adviser to the head of the President's Office of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak.

"Having taken the gas lever out of Putin's hands, it is absurd to leave the oil lever at his disposal. The previously imposed restrictions, including the "price ceiling," have ceased to work. Although for some time it was possible to keep the selling price at less than $60 per barrel, Russia was able to adapt. Now, its oil is exported bypassing the sanctions – by a shadowy fleet of tankers with fictitious insurance," Podoliak wrote on the social network X on Friday.

He explained that the biggest drawback of the current restrictions is the impunity of buyers who exceed the price limit.

"Producers in a number of Asian countries are getting rich by refining Russian raw materials into petroleum products that they legally sell to the US and EU," the adviser to the head of the President's Office noted.

"Greater control over oil transportation, ship insurance, and financing of trade operations can turn the tide," he said.

"The most urgent and difficult task falls to diplomats to persuade China and India to abandon gray schemes," Podoliak wrote.

"Sanctions regimes cannot be 100% impenetrable. But the reduction in the Kremlin's oil revenues, given the overstretched economy, will directly affect the shortening of the war against Ukraine. As with the supply of Western weapons, even belated decisions will be useful in this case," Podoliak concluded.