United States President Donald Trump on Monday said that Washington will substantially increase the tariffs imposed on goods imported from India over New Delhi’s purchase and sale of Russian oil in the “open market for big profit”.

“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian oil, they are then, for much of the oil purchased, selling it on the open market for big profits,” Trump said on social media.

He said: “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian war machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the tariff paid by India to the USA.”

Trump has been threatening to impose a so-called penalty on New Delhi for buying a large portion of its military equipment and fuel from Russia amid the war on Ukraine.

The penalty would be in addition to the 25% levy Washington announced on goods imported from India, as part of the so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that have not finalised separate trade agreements with the US.

The US president’s comment on Monday came after Trump on Friday said that he had heard that India was “no longer going to be buying oil” from Russia. “I don’t know if that’s right or not, but that’s a good step,” ANI had quoted Trump as saying. “We will see what happens.”

On Thursday, Reuters had reported that Indian state-owned refiners had halted oil purchases from Russia over the previous week. However, on Saturday, ANI quoted unidentified Indian officials as saying that the state-owned refiners are continuing to source oil from Russian suppliers.

The US president’s remarks on Friday had also come just hours after India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded to the Reuters report, stating that decisions on sourcing fuel are guided by market dynamics.

Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said that India and Russia share a “steady, time-tested” partnership. “Our ties with any country stand on their merit and should not be seen from the prism of a third country,” Jaiswal had said.

New Delhi’s clarification came two days after Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose the “penalty” on India for military and energy purchases from Russia.

While the 25% reciprocal tariff was to take effect on August 7, the executive order signed by Trump on Thursday had made no mention of the “penalty”.

On Thursday, Trump said that he does not care about “what India does with Russia” and that “they can take their dead economies down together, for all I care”.

“We have done very little business with India, their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world,” Trump had said on social media. “Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together.”

On Wednesday evening, India’s commerce ministry said that New Delhi was studying the implications of the US’ decision, and that it would take all steps necessary to secure national interests.