‘The war’s in their backyard’: Scott Bessent acknowledges Europe’s role in the Ukraine war after repeatedly blaming India

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears to have blinked and taken a step back from squarely blaming India for the Ukraine war. Most of all, he seems to have acknowledged Europe’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war. The “perverse” thing about India buying Russian oil is that Europe is buying the same oil, refined, from India, he said in an interview.

Speaking with Fox Business, Bessent said, “It is more about what the Europeans can do. This war is in their backyard and it’s never going to stop…President Trump has been very clear that the US is willing to do more but the Europeans must join us.”

“President Trump unilaterally put 25 per cent tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. And I think we are going to see the Indians slowly wean themselves off of that. The most perverse part of that – India is buying discounted Russian oil, guess where the refined products are going? It is going back to Europe. So the Europeans are financing the war against them,” said Bessent.

The secretary said according to US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin has embarrassed himself in the war. “It was supposed to be three or five days, and three and a half years (later) they have made very little gains. The Ukrainian people have been very brave. The Russian army seems very discombobulated. Now Putin has started making incursions into the NATO border. So, the one thing I can tell you is that the US is not going to get involved with troops or any of that. We will sell the Europeans weapons and then the Europeans can pass them on to Ukraine,” he said.

Bessent added that the war is now a “ race between the Ukraine military and the Russian economy”. “We want our European allies to step up, and focus on the sources of revenues for the Russian economy. And its oil,” he said.

The treasury secretary added that in his first term Trump had told the Europeans to not create Nord Stream 2, the 1,234-kilometre-long natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea. It was that reliance on Russian energy that has brought everyone to the current situation, said Bessent.