EU and US unite against Russia - Impose new sanctions on Russian oil and gas
The European Union and the United States have imposed new sanctions on Russia in an attempt to force the Kremlin to accept an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. The US announcement marks the first time that Donald Trump's second administration has imposed economic measures against Moscow.
Trump has been reluctant to take such a step, hoping that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, would engage in diplomacy and agree to a ceasefire. The decision represents a victory for Europeans, who have been demanding that Washington tighten sanctions on the Russian economy for 10 months.
The US sanctions target Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, with the former also on the EU's blacklist. Brussels has avoided including Lukoil in the sanctions because Hungary and Slovakia continue to buy Russian oil.
The decision came after the White House canceled a summit in Budapest between Trump and Putin, as Russia's maximalist position remained unchanged. "We canceled the meeting with President Putin. It didn't seem like the right choice to me," Trump said.
At the same time in Brussels, ambassadors agreed on the 19th package of sanctions from February 2022. The package includes the first ban on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas from the EU, starting from January 1, 2027. This ban will allow the remaining suppliers (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal) to use “force majeure” and break long-term contracts with Moscow, which would otherwise lead to litigation worth billions of euros.
The sanctions ban all transactions with Rosneft and Gazprom Neft and blacklist an additional 117 ships from the "ghost fleet" used to evade price caps on Russian oil transported by ship, bringing the total to 558 ships.
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