Moscow pledged to find other importers for its oil shortly after the world’s largest trading bloc agreed to impose a partial embargo on Russian crude.
The European Union on Monday agreed to ban most Russian oil imports by the end of the year as part of new measures designed to punish the Kremlin over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The move was hailed by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as a “landmark decision to cripple [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine.”
It covers Russian oil brought into the bloc by sea, with an exemption carved out for imports delivered by pipeline following opposition from Hungary.
Responding to the measures, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, Austria, said the oil ban reflects negatively on the bloc.
The EU’s von der Leyen welcomed the bloc’s agreement on oil sanctions against Russia. She said the policy would effectively cut around 90 percent of oil imports from Russia to the bloc by the end of the year, and soon return to the issue of the remaining 10 percent of pipeline oil.
Roughly 36 percent of the EU’s oil imports come from Russia, a country that plays an outsized role in global oil markets.
Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and the world’s largest exporter of crude to global markets. It is also a major producer and exporter of natural gas.
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