G7 joins EU price cap on Russian oil

Poland agreed on Friday to the European Union's deal for a $60 (€57) per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil.

"Crippling Russia's energy revenues is at the core of stopping Russia's war machine," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas posted on Twitter.

Poland, which was promoting a lower cap, has now withdrawn its objection to the EU proposal, and the deal will be made official in the coming days, Warsaw's Ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sados told reporters.

The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, said in a statement that "ambassadors have just reached an agreement on price cap for Russian seaborne oil.''

The decision must still be officially approved with a written procedure, which is expected to go through.

Shortly after the EU agreed on the measure, the Group of Seven (G7), which includes Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as EU members France, Germany and Italy, and Australia also adopted the $60-per-barrel cap.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the agreement will help achieve the goal of restricting Putin's "primary source of revenue for his illegal war in Ukraine while simultaneously preserving the stability of global energy supplies."

"Today's announcement is the culmination of months of effort by our coalition, and I commend the hard work of our partners in achieving this outcome," she said.

Ukraine's presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Saturday in a Telegram post that a lower price cap would hurt Russia more, but ultimately the goal was to hold Russia accountable.

"We always achieve our goal and Russia's economy will be destroyed, and it will pay and be responsible for all its crimes," Ukraine's presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Saturday on Telegram. But a cap of "$30 would have destroyed it more quickly", he added.

Embargo on Russian crude oil from Monday

The EU, G7 and Australia will impose an embargo on Russian crude oil from Monday.

Poland's Sados said the embargo was the most significant sanction so far placed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

He added that Poland and the EU were "working on the next package of sanctions, which will be painful and expensive for Russia."

Since the war in Ukraine began, a primary target for Western governments has been to try to limit Russia's revenues from energy exports.

jsi/sms (Reuters, AFP, AP)