The 27 member countries of the European Union (EU) managed to agree late Monday evening on a plan to embargo Russian oil that should result in a two-thirds reduction in imports by the end of the year. .
Updated yesterday at 11:46 p.m.
What you need to know
- The Europeans are going to cut off 90% of Russian oil imports.
- US President Joe Biden refuses to deliver missiles to Ukraine that could strike Russia.
- In the Donbass, Russian forces attempt to conquer Sievierodonetsk; in the south, the Ukrainians threaten to retake Kherson.
- Gazprom suspends its gas delivery to the Netherlands.
After lengthy talks in Brussels, EU members came to an agreement on a two-stage import cut. By the end of the year, they will stop buying Russian oil transported by sea, which is two thirds of their imports.
They postponed a ban on pipeline oil. This allows landlocked countries without access to the sea, especially Hungary and Slovakia, to continue to receive Russian oil essential to their economy.
For example, Hungary imports 65% of its oil from Russia, and its president, Viktor Orbán, threatened to derail an agreement if his country’s needs were not taken into account.
As Germany and Poland have pledged to stop buying Russian oil transported by pipeline by the end of the year, the Europeans will therefore cut off Russian oil deliveries by 90% by the end of 2022 .
Annually, the EU imports Russian oil for a value of 80 billion euros (nearly 109 billion CAN) and gas for a sum of 20 billion euros (27 billion CAN). All this money helps Russia to continue the war.
Other measures against Russia were adopted during this meeting, including the exclusion of three new Russian banks from the Swift financial messaging system.
No long-range US missiles
Separately, US President Joe Biden said on Monday that the United States will not deliver long-range missiles that can reach Russian territory to Ukraine.
For weeks, Ukraine has been asking Washington for the delivery of an armament system called Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) capable of sending a slew of missiles hundreds of kilometers away. To date, Ukraine does not have such a strike force.
“We are not going to send missile systems to Ukraine that can hit targets in Russia,” Biden said as he arrived at the White House after spending the weekend in Delaware and visiting the community of Uvalde, in Texas.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been asking for these missiles for a long time, in particular because he believes that the outcome of the conflict is at stake.
fierce battles
On the ground, Russian and Ukrainian forces clash in fierce battles in the heart of Sievierodonetsk (about 15,000 inhabitants) in this 96e war day. This was stated by the mayor, Oleksandr Striuk. “Russian troops have entered the city and street battles are raging,” he told The Associated Press.
In an analysis published on May 28, the Institute for the Study of War indicates that President Vladimir Putin is sending men and ammunition en masse to this Donbass city, mistakenly believing that if it falls, the Russian victory in the region will be total.
We must rather look towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk to evoke a possible Russian strategic victory, believes Dominique Arel, professor and holder of the Chair in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa.
“The battle to conquer them could take months, but the Ukrainians could be better supplied with weapons [occidentales] than the Russians [dont la production est affectée par les sanctions] he says.
For military experts, it is far from guaranteed that the whole Donbass will fall, and a Ukrainian counter-offensive could occur.
Dominique Arel, professor and holder of the Chair in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa
In the south, Ukrainian forces claim to be regaining ground in the suburbs of Kherson. “Kherson, hold on, we’re close!” “wrote the Ukrainian General Staff on Facebook – information not verified by independent sources. According to the daily The Kyiv IndependentRussian forces reportedly suffered heavy casualties and evacuated the village of Mykolaivka.
Gazprom suspends delivery to the Netherlands
The Netherlands will become this Tuesday the most recent target of the Russian gas company Gazprom, which is suspending its delivery to this country if it cannot be paid in rubles.
By October, the Netherlands will be deprived of 2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas. Dutch receptor company GasTerra, which is partly state-owned, said it anticipated the move and bought inventory elsewhere.
Since May 21, Gazprom has suspended supplies to Finland, Poland and Bulgaria, countries deemed “unfriendly” refusing to pay for this fuel in rubles.
With Agence France-Presse, the Associated Press and CNN