The European Union has approved its latest sanctions package, the 18th since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine over three years ago, including a key price cap on Russian oil exports.
"We are striking at the heart of Russia's war machine. Targeting its banking, energy and military-industrial sectors and including a new dynamic oil price cap. The pressure is on. It will stay on until [Russian President Vladimir] Putin ends this war," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Details of the oil price cap were not immediately disclosed, but Reuters quoted a diplomats as saying the sanctions package will lower the G7's price cap for Russian crude oil from the current $60 per barrel to $47.6 per barrel.
The cap will be dynamically adjusted to ensure the global price of oil does not fall more than 15 percent below the average long-term market price.
Companies involved in moving Russian oil -- including shipping companies, insurers, firms providing technical assistance, as well as financing and brokerage services -- at above-cap prices could be hit with sanctions.
The sanctions also include a ban on transactions with Nord Stream gas pipelines and the targeting of more shadow ships that are part of Russia's so-called "shadow fleet," vessels believed to be circumventing EU sanctions by carrying mainly Russian oil.
While no Russian gas currently flows through the two Nordstream Baltic Sea underwater pipelines that connect Russia with Germany, the move to ban transactions using it aims to prevent the potential resumption of such supplies.
“The message is clear: Europe will not back down in its support for Ukraine. The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war,” Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, said in a statement.
Agreement on the sanctions package came at the last minute after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico withdrew his country's threat to veto the move over concerns about the impact measures targeting Russian oil and gas would have on his country.
Fico said late on July 17 that he was withdrawing his threat after receiving guarantees that it would get help if it experienced shortages or sharp spikes in prices and transit fees, as well as any damage claims from Russia's Gazprom.
Slovakia has an energy import agreement with Russia that runs until 2034.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a post on X that "together with the United States we will force Vladimir Putin into a ceasefire."
Barrot added that the new sanctions were "unprecedented."
The 27-member EU began slapping sanctions on Russia after Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
More than 2,400 officials and “entities” — often government agencies, banks, companies or organizations — have been hit with asset freezes and travel bans in the sanctions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the new sanctions on Russia "essential and timely."
"This decision is essential and timely, especially now, as a response to the fact that Russia has intensified the brutality of the strikes on our cities and villages," Zelenskyy said in a post on social media.
