The report that Mahindra shared in the tweet cited a Bloomberg analysis titled “Russian oil still powering Europe’s cars with help of India”. In December last year, the European Union barred seaborne crude oil imports from Russia owing to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. It extended the prohibition to refined fuels two months later.

India, meanwhile, snapped up cheap Russian crude, turning it into fuels like diesel, and shipping it back to Europe at a markup, reported Bloomberg.

Zero Hedge, a far-right libertarian financial blog and news aggregator, said that in last August they showed how Russia was bypassing Europe’s commodities embargo by selling LNG to China which was then re-selling it to Europe at a substantial mark up.

“Russia was using a similar sanctions bypass for oil, this time using India instead of China, few were willing to confirm as much: after all, it would seem very shortsighted if European consumers were paying an extra surcharge to India, while Russia was not suffering any adverse consequences from Europe’s laughable “sanctions,” the outlet reported.

Another report by analytics firm Kpler stated that India has become Europe’s largest supplier of refined fuels in April while simultaneously buying record amounts of Russian crude.

The firm’s data showed that Europe’s reliance on Indian crude oil products has grown since the ban on Russian oil. Europe’s refined fuel imports from India are set to surge above 360,000 barrels a day, edging just ahead of those of Saudi Arabia, reported ANI.