Recently the EU announced sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, including a significant ban on Russian oil imports. A claim is going viral on the internet concerning the ban. An account named ‘TheDailyCPEC’ posted a claim on 5 August 2025. They claimed “EU put sanctions against India for buying oil from Russia and Iran.”
Another account named ‘BabyAmu101’ posted a similar claim. The caption says “India enjoyed its two faced hypocritical policies for far too long! They thought they’re making a fool out of others, not knowing that the actual clown is India itself!”
Fact Check
The DFRAC team investigated the viral claim and found it to be misleading. When we looked for the viral statement on the internet, we found no media reports or articles stating that the EU has put sanctions against India for buying oil from Russia and Iran. No such announcement was published on the official website of MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) as well.
Upon looking deeper, we found an article of ‘Times of India’ published on 6 August 2025. The title of the article says “EU sanctions on Russia oil: Indian arm of UAE-based shipping company takes a hit; Indian-origin captain of crude oil tanker faces sanctions”. Furthermore it informs that EU’s sanctions on Russia oil have hit an Indian branch of a UAE-based firm. Intershipping Services Hub Private Ltd, an Indian subsidiary of a UAE-based company, has been hit with sanctions from the European Union.
The article clearly mentions that sanctions are put on Russia-origin crude oil only, not all exports from India.
The claim that the EU has put sanctions on India for buying oil from Iran as well is completely baseless. We found no credible sources to prove the authenticity of the viral statement.
Conclusion
Thus, we conclude that the claim that the EU is sanctioning India because it is purchasing oil from Russia and Iran is misleading. The EU’s actual action targets refinery products of Russian crude. Not India’s right to import the crude itself, and in the context of Iran, there is no such news.
