EU agrees to ban majority of Russian oil imports amid intense fighting in Eastern Ukraine

Updates from Day 96 of the invasion

• French journalist reportedly shot and killed close to Severodonetsk.

• Russia says it struck a shipbuilding facility in Black Sea metropolis of Mykolaiv.

• Biden says U.S. will not ship long-range rocket methods to Ukraine.

• EU leaders agree on embargo for Russian oil introduced in by sea.

Russian troops pushed farther right into a key Japanese Ukrainian metropolis and fought avenue by avenue with Kyiv’s forces Monday in a battle the mayor stated has left the town in ruins and pushed tens of 1000’s of individuals from their properties.

The Russian give attention to Severodonetsk has already left the town “fully ruined,” Mayor Oleksandr Striuk stated. Artillery barrages have destroyed crucial infrastructure and broken 90 per cent of the buildings, and energy and communications have been largely reduce to a metropolis that was as soon as dwelling to 100,000 individuals.

“The variety of victims is rising each hour, however we’re unable to rely the lifeless and the wounded amid the road combating,” Striuk advised The Related Press in a cellphone interview, including that Moscow’s troops superior a number of extra blocks towards the town centre.

He stated that solely about 12,000 to 13,000 residents stay within the metropolis, sheltering in basements and bunkers to flee the Russian bombardment — a scenario that recollects the siege of Mariupol that trapped residents and led to a number of the worst struggling of the battle.

Striuk estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in his metropolis for the reason that battle started, from Russian assaults in addition to from the dire situations, together with an absence of drugs or medical therapy. Greater than 20,000 are feared lifeless in Mariupol.

A 32-year-old French journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, died Monday close to Severodonetsk when he was hit by shrapnel from shelling whereas masking Ukrainians evacuating the world, in line with his employer, French broadcaster BFM TV.

Battles in Ukraine’s east, south

In the meantime, the Ukrainian army stated Russian forces strengthened their positions on the northeastern and southeastern outskirts of Severodonetsk, 145 kilometres south of the Russian border in an space that’s the final pocket of Ukrainian authorities management in Luhansk.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai stated the Russians had been additionally pushing towards close by Lysychansk. Along with the journalist, two civilians had been killed and one other 5 had been wounded within the newest Russian shelling, he stated.

The Russian advance in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk on both facet of the strategically necessary Siverskiy Donetsk River is a part of an all-out push, stated Ukrainian army analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

The depth of the newest combating and the truth that Russia has poured troops in from their far east have come as a shock to the Ukrainians, who’re attempting to carry out till extra weapons can arrive, Zhdanov stated.

“The Ukrainian military cannot afford dropping as many troopers because the Russians,” Zhdanov stated. “The Ukrainians hope that Russia will run out of steam quickly.”

Russian strain additionally continued within the south on Monday. Defence Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated an artillery strike on a shipyard within the southern port of Mykolaiv destroyed Ukrainian armoured autos parked there.

Within the Kherson area, the Russia-installed deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, advised Russia’s Tass state information company that grain from final yr’s harvest is being delivered to Russian consumers, including that “clearly there’s a number of grain right here.” Ukraine has accused Russia of looting grain from territories its forces maintain, and the U.S. has alleged Moscow is jeopardizing world meals provides by stopping Ukraine from exporting its harvest.

In his nightly video tackle Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated the Russian blockade of Ukrainian sea ports is stopping Kyiv from exporting 22 million tons of grain, creating the specter of famine in international locations depending on the grain and the potential for a brand new migration disaster. 

Zelensky accused Moscow of “intentionally creating this drawback in order that the entire of Europe struggles and in order that Ukraine does not earn billions of {dollars} from its exports.”

Plea for extra Western weapons

Navy analysts painted the combat for Severodonetsk as a part of a race towards time for the Kremlin. Town is vital to Russian efforts to finish the seize of the jap industrial area of the Donbas shortly — earlier than extra Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defence.

Weapons from the West have already helped Ukraine thwart a Russian advance on the capital within the early weeks of the battle. That failure compelled Moscow to withdraw, regroup, and pursue the extra restricted goal of seizing the Donbas, the place Moscow-backed separatists already held swaths of territory and have been combating Ukrainian troops for eight years.

However in a possible setback for Ukraine, President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss stories that the U.S. was contemplating sending long-range rocket methods to the nation.

On Monday, Biden advised reporters outdoors the White Home that there are not any plans for the U.S. to ship long-range rocket methods to Ukraine, amid stories that the transfer is being thought of.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Safety Council, stated that was a “cheap” resolution.

He stated that “in any other case, if our cities come underneath assault, the Russian armed forces would fulfill their risk and strike the centres the place such prison choices are made.”

Medvedev added that “a few of them aren’t in Kyiv.”

EU embargo on most Russian oil

European Union leaders agreed late Monday to chop a big majority of Russian oil imports over the subsequent six months.

The oil embargo is tied up in a brand new bundle of sanctions that may also goal Russia’s greatest financial institution and state media retailers accused of spreading propaganda. The watered-down embargo covers solely Russian oil introduced into Europe by sea, permitting a brief exemption for imports delivered by pipeline.

The EU estimated that might imply round 90 per cent of Russian oil is banned by the top of the yr. As a part of the measure, Germany and Poland agreed to cease utilizing oil from the northern department of the Druzhba pipeline.

In response to the EU’s resolution, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s everlasting consultant to worldwide organizations in Vienna, took to Twitter, saying: “Russia will discover different importers.”

Hungarian Prime minister Viktor Orban made clear that he might solely assist the brand new sanctions if his nation’s oil provide safety was assured. Hungary will get greater than 60 per cent of its oil from Russia and is dependent upon crude that comes by the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.

The EU will get about 40 per cent of its pure gasoline and 25 per cent of its oil from Russia, and divisions over the problem uncovered the boundaries of the 27-nation buying and selling bloc’s ambitions.

The sanctions bundle should nonetheless be finalized in coming days.