Russian Occupation of Ukraine: Leaders of EU agree to ban 90% of Russian oil by year-end

On Monday, leaders of the European Union agreed to ban most Russian Oil from the European bloc’s markets by the end of the year. This, however, will only target the seaborne airports as of now. Hungary, however, opposed the motion. Foreign Ministers from the Baltic Sea countries agreed to continue work among other things on the green transitions to decrease dependency on Russian gas, oil, and coal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said that Russia's blockade of Ukrainian seaports was preventing Kyiv from exporting 22 million tons of grain. He further accused the country of deliberately creating this problem to cause suffering elsewhere.

European Union President Ursula von der Loyen in a tweet said, “I am glad that tonight leaders agreed in principle on the sixth sanctions package. This is an important step forward. We also agreed to work on a mechanism to provide Ukraine with a new, exceptional macro-financial assistance package of up to €9 billion.

The members of the Union have also backed a package of loans worth $9.7bn for Ukraine to keep its gov't going and pay wages for about two months.