EU chief urges members to ban all oil imports from Putin

THE European Union’s leader today called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions targeting Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the Swift payment system.

Ms von der Leyen, addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, called on the EU’s member nations to phase out imports of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.

“We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, in a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes and minimises the impact on global markets,” she said. The proposals need to be unanimously approved to take effect and are likely to be the subject of fierce debate.

Ms von der Leyen conceded that getting all 27 member countries, some of them landlocked and highly dependent on Russia for energy supplies, to agree on oil sanctions “will not be easy”.

In a bid to convince reluctant countries not to veto the plans, Brussels has suggested a longer period to implement the embargo for Hungary and Slovakia, Reuters reported an EU source as saying.

There is no consensus among the 27 members on winding down the use of Russian natural gas — a fuel which has not yet been targeted by EU sanctions.

Swift is an international payment system that allows the smooth and rapid transfer of money across borders.

Western nations have previously said that removing Russian banks from Swift would “harm their ability to operate globally”.