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Washington: President Donald Trump threatened Monday to hike US tariffs on goods from India over its purchases of Russian oil — a key source of revenue for Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

New Delhi quickly pushed back, saying the move was unjustified and vowing to protect its interests.

Trump’s heightened pressure on India comes after he signaled fresh sanctions on Moscow if it did not make progress by Friday toward a peace deal with Kyiv, more than three years since Russia’s invasion.

Moscow is anticipating talks this week with the US leader’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, Trump said in a post to his Truth Social platform that India was “buying massive amounts of Russian Oil” and selling it for “big profits.”

“They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” Trump added.

“Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.”

He did not provide details on what tariff level he had in mind.

Even before the threat, an existing 10 percent US tariff on Indian products is expected to rise to 25 percent this week.

“The targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable,” India Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement, after Trump’s announcement.

“Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security.”

India has become a major buyer of Russian oil, providing a much-needed export market for Moscow after it was cut off from traditional buyers in Europe because of the war.

That has drastically reshaped energy ties, with India saving itself billions of dollars while bolstering Moscow’s coffers.

But India argued it “began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict.”

The world’s most populous country is not an export powerhouse, but the United States is its largest trading partner.

PARIS: At least 17 Eurostar trains connecting Paris with London and continental Europe were canceled on Monday after an electrical fault on the high speed line in northern France, the train company said.
“Due to part of the track being temporarily closed on the French network, severe disruptions including cancelations are expected all day to and from Paris,” Eurostar said.
“We strongly advise all our passengers to postpone their journey to a different date,” it added.
As well as the cancelations, passengers whose trains were running were experiencing major delays of up to two hours.
French track network operator SNCF Reseau said teams were in place to diagnose the problem and carry out repairs.
It remains unclear what caused the incident on the train line between Moussy and Longueil in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
At least 17 Eurostar trains connecting London with Paris through the Channel Tunnel as well as Brussels and Amsterdam were canceled, it said.
A Paris-Brussels train and another Brussels-Paris train which left Monday morning had to turn back to their stations of origin, it added.
Those trains that were running were being directed by the SNCF along classic non-high speed lines.
Trains were starting to move again along the high-speed line from 1600 GMT but only on one track for both directions.
Disruption would persist until Monday evening and work would continue throughout the night to restore traffic to normal by the morning, SNCF said.
The incident is the latest to affect Eurostar services during the holiday season at a time when the company has faced criticism over its high prices, especially on the Paris-London route.
The theft of cables along train tracks in northern France had caused two days of problems at the end of June.
French operator SNCF has a majority shareholding in Eurostar, with Belgian railways, Quebec investment fund CDPQ and US fund manager Federated Hermes holding minority stakes.