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Within the bloc’s hardest sanction on Moscow because the invasion of Ukraine three months in the past, European Council President Charles Michel mentioned the ban agreed at an EU summit in Brussels would instantly cowl greater than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia and lower a “enormous supply of financing for its warfare machine.”
The leaders mentioned they’d agreed to chop 90% of oil imports from Russia by the tip of this 12 months, with exemptions for Hungary – a landlocked nation that depends closely on crude piped from Russia – and others involved in regards to the ban’s financial impression.
EU leaders additionally agreed to chop off the most important Russian financial institution, Sberbank, from the SWIFT system and to ban three extra Russian state-owned broadcasters, Michel added.
The announcement got here as Russia pressed its assaults in Ukraine’s japanese Donbas area, the place Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned the scenario remained “extraordinarily tough”.
Russia has been in search of to grab the whole Donbas, consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk which Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
Capturing the dual cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk on the banks of the Siverskyi Donets river would give Moscow efficient management of Luhansk and permit the Kremlin to declare some type of victory after greater than three months of warfare.
However by specializing in a battle for the one small metropolis, Russia may go away different territory open to Ukrainian counterstrikes.
Kyiv mentioned its forces had pushed again Russian troops to defensive positions in Andriyivka, Lozove and Bilohorka, villages on the
of the Inhulets River that varieties the border of Kherson province, the place Moscow is making an attempt to consolidate management.
Ukraine has known as for the West to ship extra long-range weapons however U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned Washington wouldn’t ship Ukraine rocket methods that may attain into Russia, a call Russian Safety Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev known as “rational.”
Russian Shelling
Zelenskiy mentioned Russian forces shelled the northeastern metropolis of Kharkiv once more on Monday, in addition to the border area of Sumy, which was hit from inside Russia.
Russian shelling has diminished a lot of Sievierodonetsk to ruins, however the Ukrainian defence has slowed the broader Russian marketing campaign throughout the Donbas area.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai mentioned Russian troops had superior into Sievierodonetsk’s southeastern and northeastern fringes, however Ukrainian forces had pushed them from the village of Toshkivka to the south, which may frustrate a push to encircle the realm.
“They use the identical techniques time and again. They shell for a number of hours – for 3, 4, 5 hours – in a row after which assault,” he mentioned. “Those that assault die. Then shelling and assault observe once more, and so forth till they break by way of someplace.”
With temperatures rising, there was a “horrible odor of demise” on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, Gaidai mentioned.
The chief of the Moscow-backed Luhansk Folks’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, advised Tass information company a 3rd of Sievierodonetsk was “already below our management”.
A French journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff of tv channel BFM, was killed close to Sievierodonetsk on Monday when shelling hit the car he was travelling in throughout an evacuation of civilians. French Overseas Minister Catherine Colonna, who was visiting Ukraine, demanded an investigation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, mentioned Russia was able to facilitate unhindered grain exports from Ukrainian ports in coordination with Turkey, in line with the Kremlin.
Western leaders have chided Russia for blockading Ukrainian ports, sending costs of grain and different commodities hovering. The United Nations has mentioned a world meals disaster is deepening and has been making an attempt to dealer a deal to unblock Ukraine’s grain exports.
“Emphasis was positioned on guaranteeing secure navigation within the Black and Azov seas and eliminating the mine menace of their waters,” the Kremlin mentioned of Putin’s name with Erdogan.
Putin mentioned if sanctions have been lifted, Russia may export important volumes of fertilisers and agricultural merchandise.
Zelenskiy additionally spoke with Erdogan and mentioned they mentioned meals safety and defence cooperation, “and, in fact, learn how to speed up the tip of this warfare.”
Short-term Pipeline Exemption
Efforts to agree an EU oil embargo has been blocked by Hungary’s refusal to conform to a ban on Russian imports it receives by way of the massive Soviet-era “Friendship” pipeline that runs throughout Ukraine.
Michel advised a information convention there was a “short-term exception for the oil that comes by way of pipeline to the EU,” however added: “We need to revert to the European Council as quickly as potential with a view to deal with this short-term exception and to be sure that we can goal all of the Russian oil.”
Within the Netherlands, GasTerra, which buys and trades fuel on behalf of the Dutch authorities, mentioned it could now not obtain fuel from Russia’s Gazprom from Tuesday.
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