Day 100. Russia is still shelling Severodonetsk and will likely swallow up Donbas soon.
It’s nothing to get excited about because the sanctions do not hit pipeline oil. The bloc also did not sanction Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill:
Hungary, which earlier this week won a broad exemption from the oil embargo sanctions, opposed his inclusion on the sanctions list, leaving diplomats with the choice of holding up the whole package or agreeing to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s latest demand.The centerpiece of the sixth package is an EU oil embargo that will cover 90% of the bloc’s oil purchases from Russia by the end of the year, EU officials say.Under the measures, the EU will impose a phased-in ban on Russian crude and refined fuels that arrive on ships, which account for at least two-thirds of imports from Russia. By the end of the year, with Germany and Poland also pledging to stop buying oil via pipelines, the embargo should cover 90% of previous Russian oil imports.By exempting pipelined oil, Hungary and several neighboring landlocked EU member states can still buy Russian oil and there is no deadline for the exemption. However EU leaders said when they met on Monday they would return to the issue of the exemption’s duration as soon as possible.
Russia controls most of Severodonetsk. Ukraine claims its soldiers have had some success in the east, but it might not be enough:
We’ve reported extensively on Russia’s campaign to take eastern Ukraine, which has largely been seen via attacks on the city of Severodonetsk and helped Russia secure around 20% of overall Ukrainian territory.Sharing his piece on the situation in Severodonetsk – the easternmost city still under Ukrainian control – Luhansk’s governor Serhiy Haidai said in a Telegram post that fighting raged on.Alongside photos of damaged buildings, Haidai recalled a number of air attacks in recent days. He said the blasts led to almost 30 homes being destroyed across the region and the death of a resident in Lysychansk.He also listed various eastern towns and villages, saying they too had been hit by Russian airstrikes, but did not provide further details.The BBC has been unable to independently verify these claims.
Civilians have taken cover in a chemical plant in Severodonetsk. Officials fear it could become another Azovstal, the steel plant in Mariupol.
Again, no one thought through the sanctions. We might not get a lot of grain and food from Russia but places like Africa rely on these items:
More talks are needed on allowing exports from Russia as part of an accord to resume Ukrainian food exports, Amin Awad, the United Nations crisis coordinator for Ukraine said amid the looming global food crisis, which has been exacerbated by the war.President Vladimir Putin will today host the head of the African Union, the Senegalese president Macky Sall, to give him an “exhaustive” explanation of what is really happening with Ukrainian grain, the Kremlin said.Cereal prices in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, have surged because of the slump in exports from Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “Victory will be ours. Glory to Ukraine!”
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