Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
EUROPEAN UNION LEADERS have agreed to ban more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports, tightening economic screws on the country even as Moscow’s forces press their offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
The compromise deal reached late yesterday, meant to punish Russia for its invasion three months ago, cuts “a huge source of financing for its war machine,” European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted.
“Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war,” he said.
Leaders of the 27-nation bloc had met to negotiate the long-sought deal earlier yesterday in Brussels, amid concerns raised by Hungary and other neighboring countries reliant on Russian fuel.
The agreement also includes plans for the EU to send €9 billion in “immediate liquidity” to Kyiv, Michel announced.
Hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had called an oil embargo the “key point” to any sanctions package.
“I believe that Europe will have to give up Russian oil and oil products in any case, because this is about the independence of Europeans themselves from (weaponised) Russian energy,” he said in his daily address to the nation.
Speaking in Brussels yesterday, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it would be a significant move by the EU when added to other sanctions in the proposed package, which proposes removing Sberbank from the SWIFT banking system.
“Russia is using the income from oil to finance its war and Ireland is supportive of the work that has been done in relation to the sixth round of sanctions,” Martin said.
Martin said that up to €9 billion is set to be set aside for Ukraine to help the country with budget measures, while adding that work is currently underway on plans to rebuild Ukraine after the war has ended.
The Netherlands and Denmark are today expected to join the growing list of European countries who have seen their gas shipments halted after refusing to pay Russian giant Gazprom in rubles, a demand meant to sidestep crippling Western sanctions.
Battle for Donbas
On the ground, Russian forces were making incremental gains in the Donbas region, including the industrial city of Severodonetsk, where they were edging closer to the city centre.
“The situation in Severodonetsk is as complicated as possible,” Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said on Telegram, saying the entire region was under continuous bombardment – “air bombs, and artillery, and tanks. Everything”.
As Europe announced its new sanctions on Moscow, Washington was taking a cautious line regarding weaponry for Ukraine.
Ukraine has received extensive US military aid, with legislators approving another $40 billion (€37.2 billion) assistance package in May.
But US President Joe Biden said he would not send long-range rocket systems that could hit Russian territory, despite urgent requests from Kyiv for exactly that.
“We are not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia,” Biden told reporters in Washington.
His comments came as new US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink – filling a position vacant since 2019 – and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna both arrived in Kyiv.
France will “continue to reinforce arms deliveries,” Colonna said at a news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
The highest-ranking French official to visit the capital since Russia’s invasion began February 24, Colonna also visited Bucha, near Kyiv, where Russian troops have been accused of committing war crimes against civilians.
“This should never have happened,” Colonna told reporters after visiting an Orthodox church in the town. “It must never happen again.”
Her visit came as a French journalist was killed while working in Ukraine.
Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was “on board a humanitarian bus” when “he was mortally wounded,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter.
Oil sanctions
Participants in yesterday’s EU summit hatched a compromise deal that exempts deliveries by pipeline from the oil import ban, after Hungarian President Victor Orban warned halting supplies would wreck the country’s economy.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the ban “will effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year”.
Michel said the sanctions also involved disconnecting Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, from the global SWIFT system, banning three state broadcasters and blacklisting individuals blamed for war crimes.
Russia’s Gazprom, meanwhile, was set to halt gas supplies to the Netherlands today, with Denmark likely to see the tap turned off as well.
The Netherlands’ partly state-owned energy firm GasTerra revealed the looming shut-off yesterday, saying it would not comply with payment requirements that breach EU sanctions.
Moscow has demanded clients from “unfriendly countries” – including EU member states – pay for gas in rubles as it attempts to avoid Western financial sanctions.
Danish energy company Orsted also warned its gas shipments could be cut off when a 31 May payment deadline passed.
Russia has previously halted deliveries to Finland, Bulgaria and Poland, a move blasted by the EU as “blackmail”.
Referendum cancelled
With Russia facing the oil import ban, a Georgian breakaway region delivered another blow to Moscow’s hopes for further unity among local allies, with the leader of South Ossetia scrapping a planned July referendum on joining Russia.
The Moscow-controlled enclave’s president, Alan Gagloev, warned yesterday about “uncertainty of the legal consequences of the issue submitted to a referendum.”
Since failing to capture Kyiv in the war’s early stages, Russia’s army has narrowed its focus, hammering Donbas cities with relentless artillery and missile barrages.
At least three people were killed and six wounded in an overnight rocket attack on the city of Slovyansk, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kirilenko said Tuesday on Telegram.
“I repeat once again that there are no safe places in the Donetsk region, so I call again: evacuate – save your lives,” he said.
But Ukrainian forces are pushing back in the southern region of Kherson, the country’s military leadership has said.
Yesterday, Ukraine’s southern command centre said they had driven Russian troops from the village of Mykolayivka.
A day earlier, the army claimed to have pushed Russian forces into “unfavourable positions” around the villages of Andriyivka, Lozovo and Bilohorka, forcing Moscow to send reserves to the area.
What the he’ll is wrong with some parents risking there children’s and other children’s lives because of paranoid ignorance
@Robert Halvey: Looking at the latest immunisation rate for MMR in infants, it’s 89.9% for 3Q 2023, vaccination rates must be c. 95% to prevent outbreaks. Also, vaccination rates are trending down for all childhood vaccines, not just MMR. They’ve been slowly since a peak around 2012-2014. There’s a spreadsheet on this page that can be downloaded, contains detailed stats and charts. The immunization rates for all vaccines are below the 95% recommend mimum. So we’re not just risking measles outbreaks.
Measles had been eradicated since the 1960′s in America and Europe. What is causing the return of this vicious disease?
@Brian Hunt: @Brian Hunt: I don’t think it had been eradicated.
There have been incidents and little outbreaks all down the years.
@Brian Hunt: Anti-vaxxers.
@Kevin Collins: those same anti Vax people that wouldn’t put the C19 crap into themselves. I will only take a vaccine that has gone through all the tests over 10 or 15 years before release. The flu Vax is tried and tested over decades with tweaks along the way. The C19 Vax was a rushed s h I t show.
@brendan C5: The C19 vaxes saved countless millions of lives?
And reduced much suffering besides.
Those vaxes?
@brendan C5: if you don’t view people who reneged on the covid vaccine as anti-vaxers, why have you taken offence at the use of the term? The comment never even mentioned the covid vaccine. Doth protesting too much and all that.
@Brian Hunt: what lies
@brendan C5: So, would you have had the ‘flu vaccine 15 years ago, or are you somehow, in your own mind at least, relying on others to be the guinea pigs?
@brendan C5: COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have 19.8 million lives within the first year they became available.
“Within the first year of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, it is estimated to have saved 19.8 million lives, and thus far, over 12 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in most countries around the world.”
Chavda, V.P., Yao, Q., Vora, L.K., Apostolopoulos, V., Patel, C.A., Bezbaruah, R., Patel, A.B. and Chen, Z.S., 2022. Fast-track development of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2: the shots that saved the world. Frontiers in Immunology, 13, p.961198. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.961198/full
Watson, O.J., Barnsley, G., Toor, J., Hogan, A.B., Winskill, P. and Ghani, A.C., 2022. Global impact of the first year of COVID-19 vaccination: a mathematical modelling study. The Lancet infectious diseases, 22(9), pp.1293-1302. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00320-6/fulltext?ref=refind
@Brian Hunt: there’s money to be made
@P. V. Aglue: Maybe so in North America where people can’t afford private healthcare. But when an established vaccine is free and publicly available, this isn’t about money. It’s more about other reasons why people can’t get to see a GP.
Imported
@Ali Osman: True. It seems that all these anti-vax trends are imported from USA and UK.
Excess deaths running at 20%+ this year again, any word on the potential reasons for this? Anyone?
Please be careful around the Germans.
@Sean Money: symptoms include wearing sandals with socks, and being no craic.
@Setanta O’Toole: jah hah haha
Close the pubs.we need to lock it down now.And close the off-licences. Please
Comments closed
@Richie Whelan: No, they aren’t closed.
have your say