EU leaders agree to a partial embargo on Russian oil
European Union leaders reached a deal late Monday onĀ a sixth sanction packageĀ that would includeĀ a partial oil embargo against Russia after resolving an objection from Hungary.
During aĀ marathon meeting in Brussels, the EU members agreed to anĀ embargo that covers Russian oil transported by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline.Ā
EU Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter that the deal covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, ācutting a huge source of financing for its war machine. Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war.āĀ
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had sounded skeptical a deal would be achieved at the two-day summit, said the new sanctions will āeffectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.ā EU nations get about 25% of their oil from Russia and have been scrambling to find other options.
TheirĀ leaders reached a compromise after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged them to end āinternal arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.ā
The package hadĀ stalled in recent daysĀ as Hungarian Prime MinisterĀ Viktor Orban repeatedly claimedĀ his nation’s economy would shatter without oil from Russia, which supplies 60% of Hungary’s oil.Ā All 27 EU countries must agree for the package to win approval.Ā AsĀ a landlocked nation, Hungary is not impacted by the ban on oil brought in by tanker.
Other developments:
āŗThe new package of sanctions EU members agreed to late Monday includes barring Sberbank, Russiaās biggest bank, from the SWIFT global system for financial transfers.
āŗKalush Orchestra, the Ukrainian band that won the Eurovision Song Contest, raised more than $1.2 million for the war effort by auctioning off its trophy and the pink hat won by its lead singer. Some of the money will pay for drones for the Ukraine army.
āŗTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan toldĀ Russian PresidentĀ Vladimir Putin he’s ready to resume a role in ending the war, including taking part in a possible āobservation mechanismā between Ukraine, Russia and the U.N.Ā Negotiations in Istanbul held in March failed to make headway.
āŗFrench journalist FrĆ©dĆ©ric Leclerc-Imhoff was killed Monday in Ukraine while trying to show the “reality of the war,” French President Emmanuel Macron announced. Macron said Leclerc-Imhoff was onĀ a humanitarian busĀ alongside civilians forced to flee to escapeĀ Russian bombs near Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas region.
āŗRussian state gas giant Gazprom said Monday it will cut off supplies to the Dutch trader GasTerra starting Tuesday for failing to pay for deliveries in rubles, as Russian President Vladimir Putin now requires. GasTerra, based in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, said it anticipated the move and bought gas from other providers.
USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM:Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone.
Biden won’t provide Ukraine with long-range missiles
The U.S. has noĀ plans to send rocket systems to Ukraine that are capable of striking into Russia, President Joe Biden said Monday.Ā Ukrainian officials have been asking for longer-range systems The administration isĀ working out details on aĀ new weapons package.Ā
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russiaās Security Council, called Biden’s decision āreasonable.ā
“Otherwise, if our cities come under attack, the Russian armed forces would fulfill (their) threat and strike the centers where such criminal decisions are made,” Medvedev said, adding that, āsome of them arenāt in Kyiv.ā
30 million in Africa face severe hunger, and war is inflating food prices
More than 30 million people in different regions of Africa āĀ the Horn in the east and the Sahel across the northĀ āĀ are facing severe hunger because of drought and other agricultural challenges.
The war in Ukraine has made the situation even more precarious as the priceĀ of staples, like wheat and cooking oil, has skyrocketed. Russia and Ukraine have stopped wheat exports through the Black Sea since Moscow launched its invasion on Feb. 24.
Those two countries accounted for 44% of African nations’ wheat importsĀ between 2018 and 2020, according to U.N. figures. The African Development Bank is reporting a 45% increase in wheat prices on the continent, making a large number of products āĀ including bread and couscous āĀ more expensive, even unaffordable for some.
āAcute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse,” David Beasley, executive director of the U.N.’sĀ World Food Program, said earlier this month. “Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm ā and now weāve got the war in Ukraine piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe.ā
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country has been unable to export 22 million tons of grain because the Russians are blockading its ports, and he charged that the resulting threat of famine in nationsĀ dependent on wheat is part of Vladimir Putin’s plan to get sanctions relief. The food crisis could turn into a migration crisis, Zelenskyy said.
āThis is something the Russian leadership clearly seeks,āĀ Zelenskyy said during his nightly video address, adding that Moscow wasĀ ādeliberately creating this problem so that the whole of Europe struggles and so that Ukraine doesnāt earn billions of dollars from its exports.ā
UK: Russia likely suffering ‘devastating’ loss of young officers
Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongĀ its mid and junior ranking officers, the British Defense Ministry said in it latest assessment of the war. The assessment saysĀ brigade and battalion commanders probably deploy forwardĀ into harmās way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility for their unitsā performance. The loss of a large proportion of the younger generation of professional officers will likely “exacerbate its ongoing problems” in modernizing command and control.
“With multiple credible reports of localized mutinies amongst Russiaās forces in Ukraine, a lack of experienced and credible platoon and company commanders is likely to result (in) a further decrease in morale and continued poor discipline,” the assessment says.
RussiansĀ banned from some sports but not National Hockey League
The National Hockey League postseasonĀ features Russians starring to big applause in arenas across the U.S. and Canada, even as Russians inĀ sports from soccer to tennis have been banned.Ā A total of 56 Russians skated in the NHL during the regular season, roughly 5% of the total number of players, andĀ 29 have taken part in the playoffs, just under 8%. Russian players have said little about Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s āspecial military operationā in Ukraine.
āEverybodyās doing the best they can under incredibly trying circumstances,ā Commissioner Gary Bettman told The Associated Press. āOur players play for their NHL teams, no matter where theyāre from.”Ā Read more here.
Contributing: The Associated Press
