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DEThe European Union overcame resistance from several member states and agreed on the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. In particular, the package allows a ban on oil imports from Russia. This was announced by President of the European Council Charles Michel.
He stressed that the decision was made by consensus, i.e., united all EU countries.
“We want to stop Russia’s war machine and cut the financing of Russia’s military capacity by implementing sanctions that will put pressure on the Kremlin. Tonight, the European Council agreed on a sixth package of sanctions. Concretely, it will allow a ban on oil imports from Russia with a temporary exception for imports delivered by pipeline,” Michel said.
According to him, even in this form, the oil embargo will be painful for Russia, because “it will immediately impact 75% of Russia’s oil imports and, by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be hit by the measure.”
At the same time, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen noted that part of the embargo did not take effect immediately.
“The Council should now be able to finalise a ban on almost 90% of all Russian oil imports by the end of the year. And we will soon return to the question of the remaining 10%,” she said.
According to EU procedures, the decisions of the summit must be legally implemented by separate decisions of the Council of EU, detailing the procedure for entry into force.
Ursula von der Leyen also said that the EU summit had adopted a decision to provide Ukraine with an emergency loan of 9 billion euros to meet urgent budget needs.
As Reuters reports, the Office of the President of Ukraine considers the latest EU sanctions against Russia still insufficient.
“I would say far too slow, far too late, and definitely not enough,” Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of the President’s Office, said in Madrid.
Ukraine is also not happy with the pace of weapons deliveries from the West, he added.
Bohdan Marusyak
