EU eyes Russian oil import ban amid bid to evacuate Mariupol
The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a ban within the year on Russian oil imports in its toughest move yet over the invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow said it was offering a new ceasefire to evacuate a steel plant in devastated Mariupol. The EU also pledged to "significantly increase" its support for Ukraine's neighbour Moldova, which has seen a series of attacks in a Moscow-backed separatist region, sparking fears the conflict could spread.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would "phase out Russian supply of crude oil within six months, and refined products by the end of the year".
If approved, the oil ban would be the EU's strongest move yet against Russia's strategic energy sector that helps the Kremlin finance its war, but will still not touch its huge gas exports.
But within hours, Hungary-whose populist leader Viktor Orban is one of Putin's few EU partners-said it could not support the plan "in this form", as it would "completely destroy" the security of its energy supply.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hit back that EU countries blocking an oil embargo would be "complicit" in Russia's crimes in Ukraine. The EU is also mulling moves against Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank, and against Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and an outspoken promoter of Putin.
Ukraine's allies have sent money and, increasingly, heavy weapons to Kyiv to help it defend itself in a war US President Joe Biden has framed as a historic battle for democracy.
Biden said Wednesday he was "open" to imposing more sanctions on Russia and would be discussing measures with allies from the Group of Seven democracies in the coming days.
After failing to sack Kyiv, Russia's more than two-month military campaign has shifted to seeking to unite separatist pro-Russian areas in the east with Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
The strategic southern port of Mariupol has become an emblem of the suffering of the war, with an untold number of dead and basic supplies cut off as Moscow carried out a scorched-earth campaign to wrest control. The last Ukrainian soldiers are holding out at the Azovstal steelworks where Mariupol's mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said there was heavy fighting Wednesday. Russia was attacking with heavy artillery, tanks, planes and ships off the coast, he told Ukrainian television.
"There are local residents there, civilianshundreds of them there," he added. "There are children waiting for rescue. There are more than 30 kids." Russia's defence ministry announced a daytime ceasefire for three days beginning Thursday to evacuate civilians from the plant.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price voiced scepticism about the ceasefire, saying that Moscow has repeatedly resumed shelling after announcing pauses.
Price called on Russia to show that the latest effort is "motivated by genuine humanitarian concern and not the desire on the part of the Russian Federation to achieve a PR victory".