Countries urged to stop buying Russian oil and gas

Ukraine's largest energy firm has told the BBC the West should stop buying gas and oil from Russia.

Yuriy Vitrenko, who runs Naftogaz, said Russian sanctions should be stronger and targeted directly at energy.

To stop the war from spreading "it should make this very clear choice to get rid of this dependency on Russian gas and oil," he said.

With economic sanctions "you have to believe as if you were at war with Russia," he added.

The boss of the state-owned oil and gas company believes that energy sanctions should be longer-lasting.

"I would say that it's not a short-term measure, because I believe that the in the longer term, you can reach climate change targets without Russian gas, so it's just a matter of choice."

Mr Vitrenko said that everything should be done to stop the Putin regime - which he described as Russia's "killing machine" - from receiving any revenues.

He accused the Russian President of using the revenue from oil "to kill innocent people".

Mr Vitrenko believes that Russia should be treated like a rogue nation similar to the way the West treats Iran and that the sanctions against Russia should reflect that.

He added that he thought the oil and gas pipelines have been a deterrent from attack and he had seen evidence that Russian special forces had marked them out.

Mr Vitrenko welcomed Germany's move to shut down the Nord Stream 2 gas project, which was designed to double the amount of Russian gas that flowed directly into Germany.

Even though he thought the move came too late he said it was "better late than never".

It was a shock "not just to us, but also to the Germans" that Putin took the actions he did, Mr Vitrenko said.

He said it a was "pleasant surprise that finally Europe, and Germany in particular, are serious about making sure that Putin stops getting a revenue stream".

Some Western oil giants have already announced plans to cut their Russian links.

On Tuesday, ExxonMobil said it would sell its stakes in Russian oil and gas operations as a result of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, while Shell and BP have also made similar announcements.