European Union aims for ban on Russian oil
KYIV/BRUSSELS — The European Union proposed its toughest sanctions yet against Russia on Wednesday, including a phased oil embargo, as Kyiv said Moscow was intensifying an offensive in eastern Ukraine and close Russian ally Belarus announced largescale army drills.
Nearly 10 weeks into a war that has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions and flattened Ukrainian cities, Russia was intensifying its assault, Ukraine’s defence ministry said, with nearly 50 air strikes carried out on Tuesday alone.
Russia also stepped up strikes on targets in western Ukraine, saying it was disrupting Western arms deliveries.
A new convoy of buses began evacuating more civilians from the ravaged southeastern port city of Mariupol, which has seen the heaviest fighting of the war so far and where Moscow said remaining Ukrainian forces remained tightly blockaded.
Piling pressure on Russia’s already battered $1.8 trillion economy, the European Commission proposed phasing out imports of Russian crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of this year, sending the price of Brent crude up by as much as 4 per cent.
“(President Vladimir) Putin must pay a price, a high price, for his brutal aggression,” Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told applauding EU lawmakers in Strasbourg.
The plan, if agreed by all 27 EU governments, would echo steps taken by the United States and Britain and be a watershed for the world’s largest trading bloc, which remains dependent on Russian energy and must find alternative supplies.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he would speak to other leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies this week about possible additional sanctions against Moscow. “We’re always open to additional sanctions,” Biden told reporters in Washington.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the news from Brussels, but renewed Kyiv’s plea for more aggressive steps to starve Russia’s war machine.
“Don’t get me wrong, we welcome that, but for six more months the EU countries will pay Russia billions of euros that will be invested in the Russian war machine,” he told Austrian TV channel Puls 4 in an interview.
“My position is simple: every euro paid to Russia for gas, oil or other goods ends up as rounds of ammunition in Ukraine to kill my compatriots,” he said, while calling for modern tanks and multiple launch rocket systems to protect territory.
The EU plan, which also targets Russia’s top bank, its broadcasters, and hundreds more individuals, is not a done deal, with the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia all seeking time to adapt. EU envoys were expected to move closer to agreement when they meet again on Thursday.