EU leaders agree to ban most Russian oil imports

European Union leaders agreed in principle on Monday to cut oil imports from Russia by 90 percent by the end of this year, ending a standoff with Hungary over the bloc’s toughest sanctions yet on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine three months ago.

Diplomats said the agreement would pave the way for other elements of the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia to enter into force, including blocking Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, from accessing the SWIFT system for international financial transactions.

“Agreement to ban Russian oil exports to the European Union,” European Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter at the end of the first day of a two-day summit of 27 EU leaders.

“This immediately includes more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, cutting off a huge source of financing for its war machine,” he added.

Two-thirds of the Russian oil imported by the European Union comes via tankers, and one-third via the Druzhba pipeline. Thus, the ban on imports of seaborne oil applies to two-thirds of the total oil imported from Russia.

The ban will cover 90 percent of all imports from Russia once Poland and Germany, which are also linked to the pipeline, stop buying it by the end of the year.

The remaining 10 percent of the ban will be temporarily exempted so that landlocked Hungary, which has been the main obstacle to a deal, along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic, all linked to the southern part of the pipeline, can make up the supplies.