EU leaders agreed on Monday night to ban most Russian oil from the bloc's markets by the end of the year. The embargo will target only seaborne imports. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's blockade of Ukrainian sea ports was preventing Kyiv from exporting 22 million tons of grain, and accused the country of deliberately creating this problem to cause suffering elsewhere. The embargo covers Russian oil brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline, a move that was crucial to bring landlocked Hungary on board a decision that required consensus. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, hailed the deal as a "remarkable achievement", after tweeting on Monday night that sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports, "cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine". Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the ban "will effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year" because Germany and Poland had committed to renounce deliveries via a pipeline to their territory. Michel added that the package also included removing access to Swift payments for Russia's largest bank, Sberbank; banning three more Russian state-owned broadcasters; and further sanctions against "individuals responsible for war crimes in Ukraine". Von der Leyen called the agreement on a sixth sanctions package was "an important step forward" and said the bloc had agreed a "massive investment in renewable energy" in order to compensate for the diversifying away from Russian oil. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, responded to the EU's decision on Twitter, saying: "As she rightly said yesterday, Russia will find other importers." The new package of sanctions will also include an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals, while Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank, will be excluded from SWIFT, the major global system for financial transfers from which the EU previously banned several smaller Russian banks. Three big Russian state-owned broadcasters will be prevented from distributing their content in the EU. "We want to stop Russia's war machine," Michel said, lauding what he called a "remarkable achievement." "More than ever it's important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough," he added. Michel said the new sanctions, which needed the support of all 27 member countries, will be legally endorsed by Wednesday. The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, later tweeted: "A landmark decision to cripple Putin's war machine. Our unity is our strength." Zelenskiy had earlier appealed to EU leaders to show unity against Vladimir Putin. The EU leaders had been attempting to find a way to placate the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has been holding up a deal on the latest sanctions against Putin's war machine. Under a compromise plan that was discussed at the summit, Russian oil transported through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline for Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia would be exempt from the EU embargo. In a press conference on Monday night, Michel acknowledged talk of a lack of European unity, adding: "I think that more than ever it is important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough in order to defend our values and our interests." Michel said the European Council and G7 was also ready to grant Ukraine €9bn to aid its post-war reconstruction and immediate liquidity needs. However, von der Leyen warned that Ukraine needed €5bn a month just to maintain basic services and "... to give Ukraine a fair chance to rise from the ashes". The EU had stalled over its latest sanctions against Russia for nearly four weeks since the Von der Leyen, proposed a complete ban on Russian oil by the end of the year. — Agencies
