As Russia declared the deployment of its troops in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, oil prices increased on Tuesday by two US dollars, the highest price in seven years.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Monday signed a decree that proclaims that Donetsk and Luhansk are two independent states and called on the Russian parliament to recognize them as so as well.

This proclamation was met with wide condemnation from European and US officials and considered it a clear escalation and a violation of international law.

This caused a spike in oil prices as the future contracts of Brent crude oil rose by 2.2 percent to reach USD 97.49 per barrel after its increase on Monday by two percent.

Brent crude continued to rise on Tuesday to reach USD 97.66 which is the highest since April 2014, and the West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose by 3.6 percent to reach USD 94.32.