Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. (POOL / TOBIAS BLACK)
“What is the first source of foreign exchange for Vladimir Putin’s power in several years? It’s not gas, it’s oil,” estimated Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire this Tuesday, April 19, on the Europe 1 antenna.
Moscow opens a new phase of its invasion of Ukraine after failing to capture the capital Kyiv:
Russia has launched a major offensive in the east of the country
, said President Volodymir Zelenskyy. In recent weeks, the Russian military campaign has refocused on the eastern region of Donbass, which has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
In this context, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire recalled the need
“stop oil imports from Russia” to “endanger the financing of the war”,
on the set of Europe 1 this Tuesday, April 19th. We always said with Emmanuel Macron that we want a coal embargo – it’s done – and an embargo on Russian oil. (…)
If you see what is happening in Donbass,
more than ever it is necessary to stop oil imports from Russia, the President of the Republic has been saying this for weeks, he said.
“We are preparing
I don’t hide it. We are trying to persuade our European partners to stop importing oil from Russia. What has been the main source of foreign exchange for Vladimir Putin’s power for several years?
It’s not gas, it’s oil.”
estimated Bruno Le Maire.
In 2021, Moscow supplied 30% of crude oil and 15% of petroleum products bought by the EU. A supply that certain European countries are particularly dependent on.
The President of the Republic left no doubt on this subject and we know very well that we are not there, not because France does not want it, but because
some European partners are still hesitating.
I hope that in the coming weeks we will be able to convince our European partners that we need to stop importing oil from Russia, the minister hoped.
A possible halt to black gold imports from Russia
could take “months”
however, several European sources warned on Friday. “The adoption of measures on oil forces
termination of existing contracts,
Find alternatives and avoid bypassing them. It won’t happen overnight. It will take at least several months,” said a European official involved in the talks.
The EU decided on April 8th to end its coal purchases from Russia,
an embargo that will come into effect at the beginning of August,
120 days after publication of the new sanctions package in the Official Journal of the EU.
“The second phase of the war has begun”
According to a senior US Defense Department official, Russia has increased its military presence in eastern and southern Ukraine by “eleven battalions” in a week, bringing the total number of battalions in the country to 76.
For Andriï Yermak, President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, it is now clear that “the second phase of the war has begun”. “Trust the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he said on Telegram. “It’s hell.
The offensive that we’ve been talking about for weeks has begun.”
announced the Ukrainian governor of the Lugansk region, Serguiï Gaïdaï, on Facebook.
“There are fighting in Roubizhne and Popasna, incessant fighting in other peaceful towns,” he said, admitting it
Kreminna was “unfortunately under the control of the orcs”,
Derogatory nickname for the Russian military. The city, which had around 18,000 inhabitants before the war, is located about fifty kilometers north-east of Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian capital of the Donbass region.
At least four civilians were killed in Russian shelling as they tried to flee Kreminna, Sergiï Gaïdaï continued. However, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Oleksiy Arestovych assured that the Russian occupiers have not yet conquered Kreminna and so on
Intense street fighting took place there.
Shortly before, Serguiï Gaïdaï had called on the population to evacuate the Lugansk region.
For her part, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk on Monday called on Moscow to open humanitarian corridors in Berdyansk and Mariupol, particularly in the Azovstal metallurgical complex, where there are militants but “a lot of Ukrainian civilians”. “Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will serve to
elements for the prosecution of all those involved in war crimes”,
she said on Telegram.