E.U. AGREES OIL PRICE CAP TO STARVE RUSSIA’S WAR MACHINE
Ban on shipments by tanker vessel to European bloc to come into effect from tomorrow could potentially deprive Moscow of billions of euros
The EU has joined the Group of Seven in agreeing a cap on the price of Russian oil to starve the Kremlin of resources for its Ukraine war, as Vladimir Putin said strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure were “inevitable”.
The price cap of US$60 per barrel, previously agreed on a political level with the United States and the G7 nations, will come into effect with an EU embargo on Russian crude oil from tomorrow.
The embargo will prevent shipments of Russian crude by tanker vessel to the EU, which account for two-thirds of imports, potentially depriving Russia’s war chest of billions of euros.
The G7 and Australia agreed later on Friday to adopt a cap at the same price.
Poland had refused to back the EU price cap plan over concerns the ceiling was too high, before its ambassador to the bloc confirmed Warsaw’s agreement on Friday evening, allowing the measure to be made official this weekend.
The price cap is designed to make it harder to bypass the sanctions by selling beyond the EU.
Poland’s ambassador to the bloc, Andrzej Sados, said Brussels would take into account Polish and Baltic state suggestions for a “painful and expensive” ninth round of sanctions on Moscow.
After suffering humiliating defeats during what has become the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, Russia began targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in October, causing sweeping blackouts.
Putin said Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure were “inevitable”, in a conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“Such measures have become a forced and inevitable response to Kyiv’s provocative attacks on Russia’s civilian infrastructure,” Putin told Scholz, according to a Kremlin readout of the talks.
The Kremlin leader referred in particular to the October attack on a bridge linking Moscow-annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland.
During the hour-long telephone call, Scholz “urged the Russian president to come as quickly as possible to a diplomatic solution including the withdrawal of Russian troops”, according to the German leader’s spokesman.
Putin urged Berlin to “reconsider its approaches” and accused the West of carrying out “destructive” policies in Ukraine, the Kremlin said, stressing that its political and financial aid meant Kyiv “completely rejects the idea of any negotiations”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had ruled out any talks with Russia while Putin was in power soon after the Kremlin claimed to have annexed several Ukrainian regions.
The Kremlin also indicated Moscow was in no mood for talks over Ukraine after US President Joe Biden said he would be willing to sit down with Putin if the Russian leader truly wanted to end the fighting.
“What did President Biden say in fact? He said negotiations are possible only after Putin leaves Ukraine,” Putin’s spokesman told reporters, adding that Moscow was “certainly” not ready to accept those conditions.
Russia’s strikes have destroyed close to half the Ukrainian energy system, leaving millions in the cold and dark as winter sets in.
In the latest estimates from Kyiv, Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, said up 13,000 Ukrainian troops had died in the fighting. Both Moscow and Kyiv are suspected of minimising their losses to avoid damaging morale.
Top US General Mark Milley last month said more than 100,000 Russian military personnel had been killed or wounded in Ukraine, with Kyiv forces likely to have suffered similar casualties.
The fighting has also claimed the lives of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions to flee their homes. Ukraine has said it is expecting a new wave of Russian attacks soon.