After lengthy negotiations in Brussels, European diplomats proposed a limit on the price of Russian oil Friday, a move lauded by the Biden administration that has long sought to hit the Kremlin’s energy revenue without wreaking additional havoc on markets. If the Group of Seven nations and Australia concur, it will take effect Monday — the same day the European Union’s embargo on Russian seaborne crude goes into force. It remains unclear whether the move will hit Moscow’s finances, since the $60-per-barrel cap is so close to current prices.
Ukraine live briefing: E.U. agrees to $60 price cap on Russian oil; Scholz speaks with Putin
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, who pushed to create the global price cap, said in a statement that it will “help further constrain Putin’s finances and limit the revenues he’s using to fund his brutal invasion.”
Russia has warned that if a price cap is implemented, it will retaliate.
In Washington, John Kirby, strategic coordinator for the National Security Council, called the agreement “welcome news” after President Biden had pushed for the price cap. “We still believe that a price cap will help limit Mr. Putin’s ability to profiteer” with oil sales, Kirby told reporters.
Also Friday, the Kremlin responded to Biden’s comment that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if Moscow was willing to end the invasion, saying that Russia would not give up the Ukrainian territory it has declared to be Russian land. “The special military operation is continuing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday. Peskov added that while Putin remains open to negotiations, the United States’ refusal to recognize territories annexed by Russia “complicates the search for the ground for mutual discussion.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
4. From our correspondents
Russia and Ukraine are fighting the first full-scale drone war: In the battle between Russia and Ukraine, drones are integrated into every phase of fighting, with extensive fleets, air defenses and jamming systems on each side, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Mary Ilyushina and Kostiantyn Khudov write from Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Drones have become so critical to battlefield success that at times they are used to take out other drones, they report. In past conflicts, drones were typically used by one side over largely uncontested airspace to locate and hit targets.
“Two main developments are going to impact future war,” said Samuel Bendett, a military analyst at the Virginia-based research group CNA. “The proliferation and availability of combat drones for longer-ranged, more-sophisticated operations, and the absolute necessity to have cheap tactical drones for close-support operations.”
Natalia Abbakumova, Karen DeYoung, Robyn Dixon, Chico Harlan, Stefano Pitrelli, Emily Rauhala and Beatriz Rios contributed to this report.
Source: WP
