E.U. reaches agreement on a Russian oil import ban.
European Union leaders reached a landmark political agreement late Monday to ban the vast majority of the bloc’s Russian oil imports by the end of the year, a measure that was considered impossible in the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because of the bloc’s dependency on the fuel.
Negotiators still need to work out technical details, but E.U. leaders said they had agreed to ban Russian oil arriving in the bloc by sea by the end of the year, cutting off two-thirds of the E.U.’s total imports.
Hungary and its prime minister, Viktor Orban, an occasional ally of Mr. Putin, had been blocking the measure. To win Hungary’s approval, European leaders agreed to allow pipeline imports.
Even with the exceptions to appease Hungary, the measure will cost the Kremlin billions of dollars a year while strategically decoupling Europe from Russia. It will also likely hit Europe hard, as it was already facing steeper energy prices.
@nytimes