British Petroleum (BP) announced Sunday, its intention to exit the share it has in the oil and gas company, Rosneft, which is a state-controlled Russian venture. The decision comes after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

BP has held a 19.75% stake in Rosneft since 2013. That stake is currently valued at $14 billion.

The London-based company also clarified that its CEO, Bernard Looney, and Bob Dudley, the former BP executive, will immediately hand in their resignation to the Rosneft board. 

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Looney released a statement about this, saying, “Like so many, I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the situation unfolding in Ukraine and my heart goes out to everyone affected. It has caused us to fundamentally rethink BP’s position with Rosneft”. 

Meanwhile, BP chairman Hedge Lund noted that the company had operated in Russia for over 30 years. His statement reflected, “However, this military action represents a fundamental change”.

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The UK secretary of state for business and energy, Kwasi Kwarteng, welcomed this decision from BP, saying “Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine must be a wake-up call for British businesses with commercial interests in [Vladimir] Putin’s Russia”. 

BP has already noted how it’ll take two non-cash charges in the first quarter, which will reflect this change. Among it is a charge for $11 billion due to foreign exchange losses that have piled up since 2013. 

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The decision from British Petroleum is part of the pushback from NATO countries to punish Russia for sending troops into Ukraine. The UK has already decided to investigate RT Channel, which is backed by Russians. Further, individual sanctions have also gone out, which have most notably resulted in Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich relinquishing control of the club. 

Most recently, Russia was removed from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment system, with the expectation that it’d hamper trade and hurt the aggressor’s economy.