Residents and business owners in southwest Minnesota are feeling the pain of high gas prices.

The prices are set by a number of factors, from who the individual station buys it from, how much they pay, demand and how competitive the local market is. It also depends on supply, and right now the international supply is being disrupted by Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the world’s economic sanctions against Russia.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced a ban on all Russian oil imports in response to Russia’s stepped-up assaults on civilians and non-military targets. While Russian oil is only a small part of our oil consumption, we are setting an example for our European allies, who are much more heavily dependent on Russian oil. Russia is the second biggest exporter of oil in the world, behind only Saudi Arabia, and a widespread boycott of Russian oil would hit Putin hard.

Of course, this disruption in America’s oil supply has an impact at the pumps, where the price of gas skyrocketed nationally to an average of over $4 a gallon. It keeps climbing, and it looks like it will stay high for the next few months.

It would be easy to complain about the high cost of gasoline since the start of the war. But people realize why this is happening, and a majority of people are willing to pay more at the pump if it will bring Russia to stop its offensive in Ukraine.

We don’t know how long people are willing to accept the higher prices, but our suffering when we fill up is small compared to the suffering the Ukrainian people are undergoing.