European Union (EU) reached an agreement on the 18th package of sanctions against Russia because of the war in Ukraine, with a series of measures aimed at dealing further blows to the Russian oil and energy industry.
The latest package of sanctions includes lowering the G7 group's price limit for Russian crude oil to $47,6 per barrel.
The price cap, set by the G7 at $60 a barrel in 2022, prohibits shipping and insurance companies from participating in Russian oil exports at higher prices.
"The EU has just approved one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date," European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Callas wrote on the X social network.
"We will continue to increase costs, so stopping aggression becomes the only way forward for Moscow," Kalas said.
The sanctions package also includes a ban on transactions related to Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline and the Russian financial sector.
"I welcome the agreement on our 18th package of sanctions against Russia. We strike at the core of the Russian war machine. We target its banking, energy and military-industrial sectors and include a new dynamic cap on oil prices," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on the X social network.
This is the eighteenth package of economic measures against Moscow since the invasion began in 2022, and was adopted after Slovakia lifted a weeks-long blockade, following negotiations with Brussels on separate plans to phase out Russian gas imports.
