The EU financially tightens Russia to achieve “force by force” in Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine War News

The European Commission launched a plan last week to eliminate all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027.

The plan, unveiled Tuesday at the end of Group of seven summit In the Kananaskis Resort of Canada, immediately ban new contracts to buy Russian gas. It would allow existing short -term contracts to take their course by next June and shorten all long -term contracts at the end of 2027.

“To achieve peace by force, we must exert more pressure on Russia to guarantee a real ceasefire, to bring Russia to the negotiating table and to put an end to this war,” said the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “The sanctions are essential for this purpose.”

Russia launched 32 missiles and 440 drones on kyiv As the plan was unveiled, killing 26 people and injuring 134. The attack damaged the rail infrastructure and the fires on. Odesa was also touchedly touched.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin deliberately does – just during the G7 summit. It is a clear signal for total lack of respect for the United States and other partners calling for violence,” said Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha.

Putin had done the same thing just after a telephone call with Trump on Sunday, sending 183 strike drones and 11 missiles of different types in Ukraine.

The European Union has considerably reduced its Russian energy imports during the war – by almost 80%, according to the Commission. But He is always spent About 22 billion euros (25 billion dollars) buying 19% of its gas and around 3% of its oil from Russia last year.

The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air recently estimated that the elimination of this income would deprive the Kremlin of 22% of its raw income.

Hungary And Slovakia were the main selected, arguing against a prohibition of outright importation. They argue that being landlocked, they have few alternatives to Russian oil and gas.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “an enemy of Slovakia” in January because Ukraine closed the Yamal pipeline which transports Russian gas across Ukraine in Slovakia. The only functional Russian pipeline remaining in Europe is Turkstream.

The day before the announcement of the Commission, Hungary vetoed a declaration of support for the ban.

The EU has prohibited imports of Russian coal and oil in 2022 and has since been planned to ban gas.

The EU and the G7 in December 2022 also launched a $ 60 per barrel price ceiling On Russian oil, sold to anyone in the world, threatening to disintegrate the oil tankers sold above this price.

“It is not a secret for anyone that we wanted the price to be lower,” Kaja Kallas, Estonian at the time, wrote, the head of the EU foreign policy. “A price between 30 and 40 dollars is what would harm Russia,” she said.

There were speculations that the EU and the G7 would reduce the ceiling to $ 45 this week.

Indeed, even if the EU had to stop buying Russian energy, Moscow would still be around 215 billion euros ($ 248 billion) from sales to others.

But the EU announced that it was quenching the plan due to the increase in energy prices – partly the effect of the War of Israel on Iran.

The current ceiling of $ 60 “had little effect” while oil was cheap, “but in the last days, we saw that the price of oil has increased (and) the ceiling in place fulfills its function,” Von Der Leyen told journalists on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. “So, for the moment, there is little pressure on the drop in the price of oil prices.”

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not agree. “If Russian oil is sold at $ 30 per barrel, then Moscow will suddenly seem peaceful,” he wrote on the telegram messaging platform.

It is estimated that this is the cost of extraction of Russia, leaving it no beneficiary margin to help it continue the wars.

Fence of gaps

Russia has partially bypassed the oil ceiling by buying a “shadow“Until insured oil tankers in the EU and G7 countries. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom sanctioned 20 oil tankers in more than 100 last month. The next day, Australia imposed restrictions on 60 ships, its first targeted sanctions strike on the shadow fleet.

On Friday, the American republican senator Lindsey Graham said that he and the Democrat Richard Blumenthal worked with the Trump administration to finalize a set of sanctions that would impose secondary sanctions on countries that still import Russian energy.

“We now have more than 84 co-sponsors in the Senate and 70 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives of a bill aimed at imposing serious sanctions and prices on Russia and its donors,” wrote Graham in a column.

This figure was up 50 senators on April 1. Trump opposed the sanctions, preferring Cajole rather than confront Putin.

Zelenskyy criticized this approach in an interview with US Outlet Newsmax on Saturday.

“Today, American dialogue with the Russians looks like a warm conversation,” he said. “Let’s be frank: this will not stop Putin. A change in tone is necessary. Putin must clearly understand that America will remain in Ukraine, including by imposing sanctions and supporting our army.”

Politico said Thursday that the EU was also planning to transfer around 200 billion euros in frozen Russian assets of the Euroclear system in Belgium to a “special fund”.

Currently, Euroclear can only invest through the Belgian central bank, which is safe but offers low returns. The new fund would be authorized to make more risky investments, which could increase income that could be directed to support Ukraine.

Small advances, amazing losses

Russia continued to attack Ukrainian positions during last week, making tiny gains.

Zelenskyy told Bild last week that the Ukrainian and Russian forces were on day 18 or 19 of a Russian offensive designed to create a breakthrough. The Ukrainian part had defeated a key section of the Russian advance, preventing the Russian units from meeting, he said.

Russian troops seized the village of Horikhove in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Saturday.

This, as well as other Russian increasing gains, have reached a all -for -cost cost.

Great Britain Defense Intelligence On June 12, said Russia had made a million victims in the war, 40 to 50% of whom were probably irreparable losses – killed, missed and presumed dead or irrevocably injured.

Some 200,000 of these victims were reportedly inflicted in the first five months of this year, suggesting that the rate of victims of Russia increases.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington based reflection group, broke down the Russian victims and found that they had approximately doubled the war.

Based on the figures for the Ukrainian staff, he estimated that in 2022, the Russian forces underwent 340 victims per day, going to 693 victims per day in 2023 and 1,177 victims per day in 2024. This year, the victims of the Russian daily have an average of 1,286.