This opinion was expressed by international policy expert Taras Semeniuk on Slawa TV’s Ukrainian Focus program aired on Espreso TV.“India’s oil refining sector is divided into two parts — state-owned and private companies. Private refineries are guided purely by profit, and cheap Russian oil is, for them, a golden opportunity. State-run refineries, however, follow the country’s political course. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government have signaled that these state-owned companies are in principle ready to change suppliers. But they need time — it’s technically very difficult to give up Russian oil overnight,” said Semeniuk.He explained that the refining industry is structured so that each refinery is configured to process a specific type of crude.“For instance, Indian refineries using the Russian Urals blend would need to reconfigure their technology to process lighter crude from the Middle East. This requires modernization — something that Middle Eastern countries or even the United States could help with, if there were a global objective to cut Russia’s oil export potential,” he noted.According to Semeniuk, former U.S. president Donald Trump made a “false start” in relations with India when he imposed high tariffs just as Modi was engaging with China — a move that cooled U.S.–India ties.Nevertheless, Semeniuk believes India is showing readiness to diversify.“We’re getting signals that India is interested in switching to lighter Middle Eastern oil sold by Arab countries. But that takes time. You can turn off a light in a second, but you can’t instantly convert refineries to process a different crude type. India is asking for time while asserting its sovereign position. As a former British colony, India is sensitive to any attempts to dictate its choices — it wants to act independently and look forward. Still, Indian big business operates in U.S. dollars and wants stronger ties with Washington,” he said.Semeniuk added that while India is not planning to break relations with the United States, it continues to keep channels open with Russia.“Relations have cooled somewhat, especially after reports that Russia was recruiting Indian citizens to fight in Ukraine. So India just needs time to prepare technologically to reduce — not necessarily completely stop — imports of Russian oil,” he concluded.