EU leaders agree deal on Russian oil
EU leaders agreed on Monday to ban the export of Russian oil to the 27-nation bloc, EU Council President Charles Michel said, as Ukrainian and Russian forces battled on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, the last city still held by Kyiv in Ukraine's strategic Luhansk province. Michel said on Twitter the ban would immediately cover more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia "cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine." The EU leaders, meeting in Brussels, also agreed to cut off the largest Russian bank Sberbank from the Swift system and to ban three more Russian state-owned broadcasters, Michel added. Shortly before the announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the situation remained "extremely difficult" in the Donbas region, where Russia has focus of its military effort after failing to capture Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, in March. Zelenskiy had called the EU too soft on Moscow when it appeared leaders would not reach an agreement on the oil ban. Earlier, in Washington, President Joe Biden said the United States would not send Ukraine rocket systems that can reach into Russia, a decision Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called "rational." Russia has been seeking to seize the entire Donbas region, consisting of Luhansk and Donetsk, another province Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies. Capturing Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river would give Moscow effective control of Luhansk and allow the Kremlin to declare some form of victory after more than three months of death and destruction in Ukraine. But by focusing on a battle for the single small city, Russia could leave other territory open to Ukrainian counterstrikes. In his nightly address, Zelenskiy said the Donbas situation "remains extremely difficult" and said the Russian army was "trying to gather a superior force to put more and more pressure on our defenders." (Reuters)