Ukraine has won a battle to secure an embargo on Russian oil from the Europeans, but its military is backing away from a Russian steamroller in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces now control part of the key city of Severodonetsk.
After several weeks of blocking on the part of Hungary, the 27 leaders of the European Union reached an agreement on a gradual embargo during the night of Monday to Tuesday, during a summit in Brussels which continued on Tuesday.
The embargo will initially only affect oil transported by boat, ie two-thirds of European purchases of Russian black gold, and not that transported by pipeline, which made it possible to lift Budapest’s veto.
“This will cut off a huge source of funding for Russia’s war machine,” European Council President Charles Michel said in a tweet.
The extension of the embargo to deliveries by pipeline will then be discussed “as soon as possible” and, in total, 90% of Russian oil exports to the EU will be stopped by the end of the year, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had challenged by videoconference, at the start of the summit, European leaders on their need to stand up to Russia and dry up its financial resources, of which hydrocarbons represent a significant part.
“Europe will have to give up Russian oil. Because the very independence of Europeans vis-à-vis the Russian energy weapon is at stake,” he commented on Monday evening in his daily address to his compatriots, even before an agreement in Brussels was reached. announcement.
This sixth package of European sanctions also includes the exclusion of three Russian banks from the Swift international financial system, including Sberbank, the country’s main establishment, a measure which could come into force this week.
Sberbank, however, assured Tuesday that this measure would have only a limited impact. “The main restrictions are already in force […] “Swift’s exclusion does not change the situation for international settlements,” the bank, already targeted by heavy US and UK measures, said in a statement. »
European leaders also approved on Monday evening the granting of nine billion euros to the Ukrainian government to cover its immediate cash needs to keep its economy running.
On Tuesday, EU leaders were to discuss ways to do without Russian gas, which is more essential to some European countries than oil.
“Reality of War”
The adoption of this new sanctions package comes as the Ukrainian army is losing ground in the east of the country, where Russian forces have concentrated their forces after withdrawing from the kyiv region at the end of March and completing the capture of the strategic port of Mariupol (southeast) on May 20.
Russian forces now control “part” of Severodonetsk, which they have been shelling and trying to take for weeks, regional governor Serguii Gaïdaï admitted on Tuesday, describing the situation as “ultra-complicated”.
Russian efforts “are focused on taking control of Severodonetsk”, summed up the Ukrainian army on Tuesday morning in its daily update.
Russian forces have the stated objective of controlling the entire large mining basin of Donbass, of which pro-Russian separatist forces backed by Moscow took partial control in 2014.
The city of Severodonetsk, together with the neighboring city of Lyssychansk, located some 80 km from the Ukrainian regional administrative capital of Kramatorsk, is a key agglomeration to achieve this.
It was in this area that a French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, who worked for the BFMTV channel, was killed on Monday.
He “was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war. On board a humanitarian bus, alongside civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombs, he was fatally shot,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter.
Some 12,000 civilians could remain in this town of 100,000 before the war, trapped in fighting and bombardment, the Norwegian Refugee Council, an NGO whose main staff in Ukraine was, until recently, said on Tuesday. to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 14, based in this city.
After distributing food and basic necessities to residents in Severodonetsk and the surrounding region until last week, “the intensification of the fighting now makes distributions impossible”, said its secretary general Jan Egeland in a press release. , calling on the belligerents to allow access for humanitarian organizations and the evacuation of civilians.
But even a temporary ceasefire seemed unlikely, in the absence of any peace talks.
“Safe corridors” for Ukrainian cereals?
For now, the talks seem to be focused on a resumption of Ukrainian grain exports, blocked according to kyiv by the Russian blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, fueling a global food crisis which was also to be discussed at the EU summit. tuesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to Turkey on June 8 to discuss the establishment of “secure corridors” for the transport of Ukrainian grain, his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu announced on Tuesday.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a telephone interview that Russia was ready to work with Turkey on the free movement of goods in the Black Sea, including “the export of grain from Ukrainian ports,” according to a Kremlin statement.
Pending a possible unblocking of the Ukrainian ports, the pro-Russian separatist forces announced on Tuesday that they had relaunched the port activities of Mariupol, despite the devastation of this city on the Sea of Azov, bombarded relentlessly for nearly three months.
“Today 2,500 tons of rolls of rolled sheet metal left the port of Mariupol”, in the direction of the Russian city of Rostov-on-the-Don, rejoiced the leader of the pro-Russian separatists of Donetsk on his Telegram messenger.