#EU #Russia #BBCNews The European Union placed its "strongest sanctions" yet on Russia, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called "essential and timely".
The latest EU measures, announced on Friday, included a ban on transactions related to the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline and lowering a cap on the price at which Russian oil can be bought.
They come as European allies hope to ratchet up the pressure on Russia to bring the three-year-long war in Ukraine to an end.
But former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, said his nation's economy would survive the sanctions and that Moscow will continue striking Ukraine "with increasing force".
The EU sanctions are the 18th round of such measures since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
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00:00Let's turn to the European Union because they have agreed more sanctions against Russia over its war against Ukraine,
00:05targeting its financial and energy sectors.
00:08The price cap on Russian crude oil will be slashed at just over $47 a barrel.
00:14President Zelensky has hailed the new sanctions as, quote, essential and timely.
00:19The Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was striking at the heart of Russia's war machine.
00:25Well, let's go to our Europe reporter in Brussels, Sofia Batica.
00:28And Sofia, tell us a little more then about this round of sanctions, because this is the 18th round, isn't it?
00:36Yes, that's right. And it wasn't easy to get there for the EU.
00:39Lots of negotiations in Brussels this week.
00:42But today we heard from the EU foreign policy chief, Kaya Callas,
00:46saying that this is one of the toughest sanctions packages that the EU has approved yet.
00:51As you said, they target, among other things, the energy exports, the banking sector, the military industry.
01:00What is new is that they also impose a price cap on Russian oil.
01:05And that's significant. That sort of brings that price about 15 percent below market value.
01:11The reason why it's significant is that Russia really relies on exporting oil and gas as a form of revenue.
01:21And so Brussels is hoping that by sort of decreasing its reliance on Russian fossil fuels,
01:27it will weaken the Kremlin's ability to finance the war.
01:32Now, as to whether these sanctions will work, well, I think not in the short term.
01:36As you said, Matthew, this is the 18th round of sanctions.
01:39Russia is still attacking Ukraine on a daily basis.
01:43And Russia has adapted to sanctions like these.
01:46It's found ways to trade with other countries, exporting oil to China, for example, and to India.
01:53But I think this is as far as Brussels is willing to go for the moment.
01:58They say that the sanctions will have an impact over time, weakening Russia's economy.
02:03But they are unlikely, very, very unlikely to stop missile attacks or drone attacks in the short term.
02:12Sophia, thanks very much. Live there in Brussels.
02:15Let's continue this with Isaac Levy, who's from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air,
02:20which has been tracking Russia's oil and gas exports for some time now through the course of this war.
02:26And welcome here to the programme, your assessment of this latest round of sanctions.
02:30Thank you very much. Yes. So the 18th sanctions package are significant, as mentioned.
02:36It's great to see a lowering the price cap, but this is only likely to have a big impact on slashing Russian export revenues.
02:43If we see greater enforcement of the price cap policy, we know that the policy has been evaded.
02:49And the measures enable it relatively easy for traders to falsely report the price of the oil.
02:57These are opaque companies that are registered in countries that do not implement sanctions.
03:02And they will they will write these attestation documents promising compliance with the price cap that are then passed on to,
03:09for example, the largest maritime insurers based in London.
03:13So since the start of the full scale invasion of Ukraine, about half of all Russian oil has been transported on those tankers that are owned or insured in the West.
03:23So this is a measure that we very much welcome a lowering of the price cap.
03:27But what we do need to see is greater enforcement.
03:29There are two other areas.
03:31Well, before we get on to those two other areas, sorry to dive in.
03:33Tell me more then about the gaps that Russia has been able to exploit over the years then on this during this war.
03:42Well, one of them is to try and avoid reliance on Western owned or insured tankers to transport its oil.
03:48It used to be about 90 percent reliant on Western owned or insured vessels to transport its oil.
03:54It then decided to buy what's called shadow tankers.
03:58So those tankers perhaps bought on secondary markets with poor insurance or of old age and therefore a lack of maritime compliance.
04:09And we at Korea estimate around 600 shadow tankers transporting Russian oil since 2024.
04:16Now the EU has sanctioned 100 new vessels, totaling up to over 400,
04:21which is significant because when the EU sanctions a vessel, we've seen the amount of oil they're able to transport fall by around a third.
04:30On top of that, they've invested, Russia has invested around 14 billion euros in buying these old tankers,
04:37which become less effective after they've been sanctioned.
04:41I'm just going to put onto the screen a tracker that your organisation actually runs.
04:45It shows how much the EU has spent on Russian fossil fuels during the course of the war.
04:53And it is extraordinary because it's been reported a while back,
04:56but it's worth underlining that that amount outstrips the financial amount that the EU has actually spent helping Ukraine.
05:06It's almost contradictory.
05:07Yeah, of course. And this is why we believe the EU, along with its allies in the UK and the US,
05:13need to go further to hit the Russian energy sector, stop financing the war.
05:17And as you mentioned, sending more money to Russia than financial aid to Ukraine.
05:22There's a big announcement today that the EU plans to ban the import of oil products made from Russian crude in India and Turkey
05:30and those non-sanctioning countries.
05:31We very much hope that the UK will follow suit.
05:34And this oil is around 6 billion euros in value that is getting sent back to Russia.
05:41Just in two sentences, if you would, do you think any of this will stop China, India taking the Russian oil?
05:49Yes, I think it will have an increased pressure on them to stop buying as much Russian oil
05:55if they want to be able to export to those key markets such as Europe.
05:58And we very much hope that the UK and the EU, the US, sorry, will follow suit.
06:04Isaac, great to talk to you. Thanks very much for giving us that insight.
