EU leaders have agreed on to ban the export of Russian oil to the 27-nation bloc, its president has announced.
“This immediately covers more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine,” EU Council president Charles Michel wrote on Twitter.
It was also agreed that the largest Russian bank Sberbank from the Swift system be cut off, while a further three Russian state-owned broadcasters will be outlawed.
It comes as Russian fighters captured one third of Luhansk’s key city Sievierodonetsk, a Moscow-backed separatist leader said, adding that they have not managed to advance as rapidly as they had planned.
Regional governor confirmed that the Russian fighters are slowly making their way to the centre of the city as Moscow’s bid to seize the territory in the Ukrainian oblast has intensified.
A third of the key city is “already under our control”, Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the Moscow-backed Luhansk People’s Republic told TASS news agency.
