EU proposes banning Russian crude oil imports

The EU said it would ban Russian crude oil imports by the end of 2022. Since the start of the invasion, the country has received approximately €22bn (£18.5bn) in income from exports to EU member states of crude or petroleum products.

The ban would mean crude oil imports would be embargoed after six months.

Refined petroleum products such as gasoline would be embargoed after nine months, to soften the economic impact on some European countries.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, tabled new sanctions to be agreed by the EU’s 27 governments this week.

 “We now propose a ban on Russian oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year,” she told the European parliament.

“This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined. Let’s be clear: it will not be easy. Some member states are strongly dependent on Russian oil. But we simply have to work on it”.

Some EU member states are more reliant on Russian oil than others. For Hungary, it accounts for 65 percent of its total. Peter Szijjarto, the country’s foreign minister, said: “Currently it is physically impossible to operate Hungary or the Hungarian economy without Russian oil”.

Von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, as well as the Credit Bank of Moscow and the Russian Agricultural Bank, be disconnected from Swift, the global banking communications system.