The European Union has approved its latest sanctions package, the 18th since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine over three years ago, including a key price cap on Russian oil exports.
“We are striking at the heart of Russia’s war machine. Targeting its banking, energy and military-industrial sectors and including a new dynamic oil price cap. The pressure is on. It will stay on until Putin ends this war,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Details of the oil price cap were not immediately disclosed, but Reuters quoted a diplomats as saying the sanctions package will lower the G7’s price cap for Russian crude oil to $47.6 per barrel.
The sanctions also include a ban on transactions with Nord Stream gas pipelines and the targeting of more shadow ships that are part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” vessels believed to be circumventing EU sanctions by carrying mainly Russian oil.
While no Russian gas currently flows through the two Nordstream Baltic Sea underwater pipelines that connect Russia with Germany, the move to ban transactions using it aims to prevent the potential resumption of such supplies.
“The message is clear: Europe will not back down in its support for Ukraine. The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat said in a statement.
