Ukraine crisis: EU leaders agree to ban 90% of Russian oil by year-end

European Union leaders agreed on Monday to ban most imports of Russian oil to the 27-nation bloc as Ukrainian and Russian forces battled on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, the last city still held by Kyiv in Ukraine’s strategic Luhansk province.

In the bloc’s toughest sanction on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine three months ago, European Council President Charles Michel said the ban agreed at an EU summit in Brussels would immediately cover more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia and cut a “huge source of financing for its war machine.”

The leaders said they had agreed to cut 90 per cent of oil imports from Russia by the end of this year, with exemptions for Hungary - a landlocked country that relies heavily on crude piped from Russia - and others concerned about the ban’s economic impact.

EU leaders also agreed to cut off the largest Russian bank, Sberbank, from the SWIFT system and to ban three more Russian state-owned broadcasters, Michel added.

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