BP has held the stake since 2013.
BP is to offload its 19.75% stake in Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft with immediate effect.
The firm's chief executive Bernard Looney is also resigning
from Rosneft's board along with its other Rosneft director, Bob Dudley, the oil
firm said in a statement.
The statement said Russia's invasion of Ukraine "caused
us to fundamentally rethink BP's position with Rosneft".
It has held the shareholding in the Russian company since
2013.
Mr Looney had been on the Rosneft board since 2020,
alongside its chairman Igor Sechin, who is a close friend and ally of Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
The PA News agency reported Mr Looney was in Russia as
recently as October, when he appeared on a panel with Mr Putin, which he later
described as a "privilege".
BP chairman Helge Lund said that, while BP had operated in
Russia for more than 30 years and had "brilliant Russian colleagues",
Russia's attack on Ukraine was "having tragic consequences across the
region" and represented a fundamental change.
"It has led the BP board to conclude, after a thorough
process, that our involvement with Rosneft, a state-owned enterprise, simply
cannot continue."
Company officials say it is too soon to say exactly how this
stake will be disposed of.
It could potentially be seized, or sold.
Mr Looney said that he had been "deeply shocked and
saddened" by the situation in Ukraine and it had caused BP to
fundamentally rethink its position with Rosneft.
"I am convinced that the decisions we have taken as a
board are not only the right thing to do, but are also in the long-term
interests of BP," he said.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: "I welcome BP's
decision to exit its shareholding in Rosneft oil company.
"Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine must be a
wake-up call for British businesses with commercial interests in Putin's
Russia."
BP's latest annual results, published two weeks ago,
revealed Rosneft accounted for £2billion of its profits, about a fifth of its
total.
Oil prices surged past £74 a barrel to hit their highest
level for more than eight years after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine
on Thursday.