European Union leaders reached an agreement late Monday on a sixth sanctions package that includes a partial oil embargo against Russia after resolving an objection from Hungary.
During a marathon meeting in Brussels, European Union members agreed to a ban covering Russian oil transported by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for pipeline-delivered imports.
EU Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter that the deal covers more than two-thirds of Russia’s oil imports, “cutting off a huge source of financing for its war machine. Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war.”
The The package has been discontinued in recent days Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also repeatedly claimed that his country’s economy would crash without oil from Russia, which supplies 60% of Hungary’s oil. All 27 EU countries must approve the package in order for it to win approval.
As a landlocked country, Hungary has not been affected by the ban on oil brought in by tankers.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has expressed doubts about the possibility of reaching an agreement during the two-day summit. “My expectations are low that it will be resolved within the next 48 hours,” she said.
Other developments:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is ready to resume his role in ending the war, including participating in a potential “monitoring mechanism” between Ukraine and Russia and UN negotiations in Istanbul in March that failed to make progress.
French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff The two were killed in Ukraine French President Emmanuel Macron declared, while trying to show “the reality of war”. Macron said Leclerc-Imhoff was on a humanitarian bus alongside civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombs near Severodonetsk, a major city in the Donbass region.
Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said on Monday it would cut supplies to Dutch trader GasTerra from Tuesday for failing to pay for shipments in rubles, as Russian President Vladimir Putin is now requesting. GasTerra, based in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, said it expected the move and had bought gas from other suppliers.
USA Today on the phone: Join the Russian-Ukrainian war channel to receive updates directly on your phone
Biden will not supply Ukraine with long-range missiles
President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States has no plans to send missile systems to Ukraine capable of striking Russia. Ukrainian officials are demanding long-range systems, including the Multiple Launch Rocket System, which has a range of hundreds of miles. The administration is working out details of a new arms deal.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, called Biden’s decision “reasonable.”
“Otherwise, if our cities are attacked, the Russian armed forces will fulfill their threat and strike at the centers where such criminal decisions are taken,” Medvedev said, adding that “some of them are not in Kyiv.”
30 million in Africa face extreme hunger, and war is driving up food price inflation
More than 30 million people in different parts of Africa – the Horn in the east and the Sahel region across the north – are facing extreme hunger due to drought and other agricultural challenges.
The war in Ukraine has made the situation even more dire, with prices of basic foodstuffs such as wheat and cooking oil skyrocketing. Russia and Ukraine have halted wheat exports through the Black Sea since Moscow launched its invasion on February 24.
These two countries accounted for 44% of African countries’ imports of wheat between 2018 and 2020, according to United Nations figures. The African Development Bank has reported a 45% increase in wheat prices on the continent, making a slew of products – including bread and couscous – more expensive, even unaffordable for some.
“Acute hunger is rising to unprecedented levels and the global situation is getting worse,” David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, said earlier this month. “Conflict, climate crisis, COVID-19, rising food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm — and now we have the war in Ukraine piling disaster on top of disaster.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country is unable to export 22 million tons of grain because the Russians are blockading its ports, and accused the threat of starvation in wheat-dependent countries as part of Vladimir Putin’s plan to ease sanctions. Zelensky said the food crisis could turn into a migration crisis.
“This is something the Russian leadership clearly seeks,” Zelensky said during his nightly video address, adding that Moscow “deliberately creates this problem so that the whole of Europe struggles and so that Ukraine does not earn billions of dollars from its exports.”
UK: Russia likely to suffer ‘devastating’ loss for young officers
It is possible that Russia has suffered Heavy losses among its middle and junior ranksThe British Ministry of Defense said in its latest assessment of the war. The assessment indicates that brigade and battalion commanders may be deployed in danger because they bear an uncompromising level of responsibility for the performance of their units. The loss of a large proportion of the younger generation of professional officers is likely to “exacerbate its continuing problems” in modernizing command and control.
“With multiple credible reports of localized insurgencies among Russian forces in Ukraine, the lack of experienced and credible platoon and company commanders will likely lead to a further decline in morale and persistent poor discipline,” the assessment says.
Russians are banned from some sports but not the National Hockey League
Postseason National Hockey League The Russians are distinguished by a big applause In arenas across the US and Canada, even as Russians are banned in sports from soccer to tennis. A total of 56 Russians skated in the NHL during the regular season, nearly 5% of the total number of players, and 29 participated in the playoffs, just under 8%. Russian players haven’t said much about Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“Everyone is doing their best under very difficult circumstances,” Commissioner Gary Pittman told The Associated Press. “Our players play for the NHL teams, no matter where they come from.” Read more here.
Contributing: The Associated Press