Ukraine war briefing: EU and UK increase sanctions on Russia as drone strike on Odesa kills one
The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems destroyed 87 Ukrainian drones in a five-hour period on Friday evening, including over the Bryansk region bordering northern Ukraine and the Moscow region. Russian aviation authorities were once again forced to suspend flights at Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports serving Moscow. The Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said 13 drones were downed or destroyed after midnight, but made no mention of casualties or damage. The acting governor of Rostov region, on Ukraine's eastern border, said Ukrainian drones triggered fires and knocked down power lines.
The EU on Friday agreed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia, including measures aimed at restricting the Russian oil and energy industry. The EU will set a moving price cap on Russian crude at 15% below its average market price, aiming to improve on a largely ineffective $60 cap that the G7 economies have tried to impose since December 2022. The measures were approved after Slovakia dropped its opposition in exchange for further guarantees on gas imports.
Kaja Kallas said the measures by the EU would be 'one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date'. 'We will keep raising the costs, so stopping the aggression becomes the only path forward for Moscow,' said the EU foreign policy chief.
The UK announced it would join the price cap, dealing a blow to Moscow's oil revenues. 'The UK and its EU allies are turning the screw on the Kremlin's war chest by stemming the most valuable funding stream of its illegal war in Ukraine even further,' said the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, at a G20 meeting in South Africa.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, complained to reporters that Russia considered 'such unilateral restrictions illegal'. 'We oppose them,' he said. 'But at the same time, of course, we have already acquired a certain immunity from sanctions. We have adapted to life under sanctions.'
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU by 2034 was unlikely. 'For us, the absolute top priority is, first and foremost, to do everything possible to end this war,' Merz said on Friday. 'Then we'll talk about the reconstruction of Ukraine … but that's going to take a number of years.' He said it would 'probably not even affect the EU's current medium-term financial outlook', which runs to 2034. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in Kyiv in February that Ukraine could join the EU before 2030 if the country continued reforms at the current speed and quality.
Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Friday that his forces were 'containing intense pressure' from Russia on Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in eastern Donetsk region that has weathered months of Russian attempts to capture it. Syrskyi said he had presented a report to the president describing the challenges facing Ukrainian troops along the 1,000km (620-mile) front. 'The enemy is continuing to deploy its tactic of small infantry groups, but has proved powerless on its attempts to seize Pokrovsk. Today, they tried to break through with sabotage groups but were exposed and destroyed,' Syrskyi wrote on Telegram.
The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army. Australia had previously pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks last October. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers have not been released.
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