By the end of 2027, the European Commission has unveiled a plan to completely stop imports of Russian gas.
The Group of Seven summit’s final day in Canada’s Kananaskis resort on Tuesday would immediately impose new contracts to purchase Russian gas. By the end of 2027, it would cut short any long-term contracts and allow existing short-term contracts to expire by June 2027.
Ursula von der Leyen, Commission President, stated that “to achieve peace through strength, we must put more pressure on Russia to secure a real ceasefire, bring Russia to the bargaining table, and put an end to this war.” To accomplish that goal, sanctions are essential.
As part of the unveiling of the plan, Russia launched 32 missiles and 440 drones into Kyiv, killing 26 people and injuring 134. Railway infrastructure was impacted and the fires were sparked by the attack. Additionally, Odesa suffered a lot.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, deliberately does this right before the G7 summit. Andrii Sybiha, the country’s foreign minister, said it was a clear sign of total disrespect for the United States and other countries that call for the end of the conflict.
Following a call with Trump on Sunday, Putin immediately sent 183 strike drones and 11 different type missiles into Ukraine.
The commission claims that during the war, the European Union’s imports of Russian energy have fallen by almost 80%. However, last year, it purchased about 22% of its oil and 20% of its gas from Russia for about 22 billion euros ($25bn).
According to a recent study from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the Kremlin would lose 22 percent of its gross income if it were to stop receiving that money.
The main opposition groups have been Hungary and Slovakia, who have voiced opposition to a complete import ban. They contend that there aren’t many alternatives to Russian oil and gas because of their landlocked status.
Because Ukraine shut down the Yamal pipeline, which transports Russian gas from Ukraine to Slovakia, in January, Slovak Premier Robert Fico referred to Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “an enemy of Slovakia.” TurkStream is the only remaining functioning Russian pipeline through Europe.
Hungary vetoed a statement of support for the ban the day before the commission’s announcement.
In 2022, the EU planned to impose a ban on Russian imports of coal and oil, and it has since begun.
By threatening to uninsure tankers selling more than that amount, the EU and the G7 also announced a $60 per barrel cap on Russian oil for sales to anyone else in the world in December 2022.
Estonian Kaja Kallas, then-premier and current EU head of foreign policy, wrote on Twitter, “It is no secret that we wanted the price to be lower.” She said that a price between $30 and $40 would significantly damage Russia.
This week, there was rumor that the EU and the G7 would lower the cap to $45.
Because of the fact that Moscow would still generate an estimated 215 billion euros ($248bn) from sales to other countries even if the EU did not stop buying Russian energy.
However, the EU announced that the initiative was being halted as a result of rising energy costs, partially as a result of Israel’s war against Iran.
Von der Leyen told reporters on the G7 meeting that the current $60 cap “had little effect” despite the price of oil, “but in the last days, we have seen that the oil price has increased]and] the cap in place serves its purpose. There is therefore little pressure to lower the oil price cap at the moment.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, disagreed. Moscow will suddenly sound peaceful, he wrote on the Telegram messaging platform. “If Russian oil is sold for no more than $30 per barrel, then it will suddenly sound peaceful.”
Without a profit margin, Russia’s extraction costs are estimated to be what it will pay to start war prosecutions.
identifying the flaws
Russia partially escaped the oil cap by purchasing a “shadow fleet” of tankers that were not insured in the G7 and EU. The UK approved 20 tankers on Tuesday in addition to the 100 that were last month. Australia’s first targeted sanctions against the shadow fleet were imposed on 60 vessels the day after they were put in place.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from the US, announced on Friday that he and Republican Senator Richard Blumenthal were working with the Trump administration to put together a sanctions package that would impose secondary sanctions on nations that still import Russian energy.
A bill to impose severe sanctions and tariffs on Russia and its financial backers has more than 84 co-sponsors in the Senate and 70 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, Graham wrote in a column.
On April 1, there were 50 senators who had risen to that number. Trump has opposed sanctions, preferring to annoy Putin over to cajole him.
In a Saturday interview with US outlet Newsmax, Zelenskyy decried that approach.
He said that the conversation between America and Russia today resembled a warm conversation. This won’t stop Putin, let’s be clear. It is necessary to change the tone. Putin must be aware that the United States will support Ukraine, including by imposing sanctions and supporting our military.
According to Politico, the EU was also considering moving about 200 billion euros worth of frozen Russian assets from Belgium’s “special purpose fund” from the Euroclear system.
The Belgian central bank, which is secure but offers low returns, is where Euroclear can only make investments right now. The new fund would be able to make riskier investments, which might result in more money being invested in helping Ukraine.
Small victories and astronomical losses
Over the past week, Russia has continued to attack Ukrainian positions with little success.
According to Zelenskyy, the Russian offensive’s day 18 or 19 was intended to bring about a breakthrough for Ukraine and Russia. He claimed that the Ukrainian side had defeated a significant portion of the Russian advance, preventing unification of Russian forces.
On Saturday, Russian forces took control of the village of Horikhove in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.
That and other Russian incremental gains have had a significant impact on life.
On June 12, British Defense Intelligence estimated that Russia had lost a million lives, with 40 to 50 percent likely irrecoverable losses, including those who had been killed, missing, presumed dead, or were irrevocably injured, according to estimates from the country’s Defence Intelligence.
In the first five months of this year, around 200, 000 of those casualties were thought to have been caused, which suggests Russia’s casualty rate is rising.
Russian casualties have roughly doubled each year since the start of the war, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, 340 casualties were reported daily in 2022 by Russian forces, up from 693 in 2023 and 1,177 in 2024. Russian daily casualties have reached 1, 286 on average this year.
Source: Aljazeera
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