Live: G7 price cap on Russian oil comes into force
Issued on: 05/12/2022 – 08:22Modified: 05/12/2022 – 08:23
01:48The price cap on Russian oil agreed by the EU, G7 and Australia comes into force on Monday, aiming to restrict Russia’s revenue while making sure Moscow keeps supplying the global market. The cap is due to take effect alongside an EU embargo on maritime deliveries of Russian crude oil, which comes several months after an embargo imposed by the United States and Canada. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
1:57pm: Air raid sirens across Ukraine, two killed in missile attack in south: officials
Ukraine officials in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia said Monday that two people had been killed by Russian missiles as authorities in several regions urged residents to shelter from a fresh Russian missile barrage.
The head of the Zaporizhzhia region said two people were killed and two more injured in attacks that damaged residential homes, while Kyiv region officials said air defences were repelling Russian attacks and several regional governors called on residents to take shelter.
1:44pm: NATO policy risks ‘direct clash’ between nuclear powers, says Russia’s Lavrov
is a “serious threat” to Russia, and the West’s positions risked a “direct clash between nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences”, Russian Foreign Minister has warned.
Lavrov also said he regretted that the US had rejected talks with Moscow over “strategic stability” – a host of issues related to – and said that without direct talks between the world’s two largest nuclear powers, the risk to global security would only grow.
11:20am: Russia says oil price cap ‘will not affect’ Ukraine offensive
The Kremlin says a $60 price cap on Russian exports agreed by the EU, G7 and Australia will not affect Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.
“The economy of the Russian Federation has all the necessary potential to fully meet the needs and requirements of the special military operation. These measures will not affect this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Moscow’s term for the Ukraine offensive.
11:05am: In occupied Kherson, ‘the Russians were destroying all books in Ukrainian’
During the Russian occupation of , only one third of schools remained open in the southern Ukrainian city. Many teachers refused to work as all teaching had to be done in Russian.
FRANCE 24’s reporters spoke to Tatyana, one of many teachers yearning to return to school despite daily Russian strikes on their city.
02:47
9:21am: Nine killed in shelling of Russian-held town in eastern Ukraine
Russian-backed military officials in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region say nine people were killed after Ukraine shelled the city of Alchevsk, the state-run TASS news agency has reported.
8:24am: Kremlin ally joins tech giant Yandex as senior adviser
Alexei Kudrin, a long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin, is set to join Yandex, Russia’s most prominent independent tech company that has in recent years succumbed to the ‘s tightening grip.
“I accepted an offer from Yandex to become a corporate development adviser. Together with the management, I will develop the corporate structures of the new holding, which will ensure the long-term and sustainable development of the company on all markets, including international ones,” Kudrin, a former finance minister, said on social media.
6:05am: Russia tribunal faces major hurdles, experts say
While Ukraine and the West dream of a tribunal that could put Vladimir Putin in the dock for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts warn such a court would face formidable challenges.
The EU has proposed a “specialised court” backed by the to prosecute Russia’s “crime of aggression”, in one of the most concrete steps so far.
The plan would get around the fact that the (ICC) can investigate war crimes in Ukraine, but cannot try the “leadership” crime of aggression in Russia’s case.
Yet serious questions remain about a special court’s feasibility and legitimacy – let alone about whether the Kremlin or Russian military leaders would ever end up on trial.
“On both legal and practical levels there are considerable obstacles,” Cecily Rose, assistant professor of public international law at Leiden University, told AFP.
1:28am: Ukraine, Baltics rebuke Macron for suggesting ‘security guarantees’ for Russia
French President ‘s suggestion the West should consider Russia’s need for security guarantees if Moscow agrees to talks to end the war in Ukraine unleashed a storm of criticism in Kyiv and its Baltic allies over the weekend.
In an interview with French TV station TF1, Macron said that Europe needs to prepare its future security architecture and also think “how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table.”
Ukrainian President ‘s top aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that it is the world that needs security guarantees from Russia, not the other way around.
“Civilized world needs ‘security guarantees’ from barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia,” Podolyak said on Twitter on Sunday.
Civilized world needs “security guarantees” from barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia…It will be possible only after tribunal, conviction of war authors and war criminals, imposition of large-scale reparations and bloody clarification of ru-elites “who is the one to blame?”
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M)
12:08am: G7 price cap on Russian seaborne oil kicks in
The Group of Seven price cap on Russian seaborne oil came into force on Monday as the West tries to limit Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine, but Russia has said it will not abide by the measure even if it has to cut production.
The price cap, to be enforced by the , the and Australia, comes on top of the EU’s embargo on imports of Russian crude by sea and similar pledges by the United States, Canada, Japan and Britain.
It allows Russian oil to be shipped to third-party countries using G7 and EU tankers, insurance companies and credit institutions, only if the cargo is bought at or below the price cap.
Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, said on Sunday it would not accept the cap and would not sell oil that is subject to it, even if it has to cut production.
FRANCE 24’s Correspondent Nick Holdsworth tells us more.
01:3411:05pm: US intel chief thinking ‘optimistically’ for Ukraine forces
The head of intelligence says fighting in ’s war in is running at a “reduced tempo” and suggests Ukrainian forces could have brighter prospects in coming months.
Avril Haines alluded to past allegations by some that Russian President ’s advisers could be shielding him from bad news — for Russia — about war developments, and said he “is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia.”
“But it’s still not clear to us that he has a full picture of at this stage of just how challenged they are,” Haines, the US director of national intelligence, said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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