India, Sept. 23 -- India cannot simply stop buying Russian oil and switch to other suppliers, Nirmala Sitharaman has said. The Union finance minister cited global supply constraints and the needs of the country's 1.4 billion people.

At the BusinessLine Changemaker Awards on Tuesday, Sitharaman said moving away from Russian crude could drive up prices because the global supply pool remains limited.

"India can get out of Russia and say all right I'm buying oil from somewhere else. The moment you come out the available pool which is limited is going to shoot up in price," she said. "It poses a severe challenge no doubt, but I think we will have to keep India's interest topmost," she said.

Her remarks came days after US President Donald Tr...