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European Union diplomats set a price limit of $60 a barrel for Russian oil after lengthy negotiations.
The European Union agreed on Friday to set a top price of $60 per barrel for Russian oil, according to Poland's ambassador to the bloc and a key negotiator of the policy. The policy was devised by the Group of 7 industrialized nations and their allies in order to limit Russia's revenue.
The G7 was expected to make an official announcement by Sunday.
The talks to set the cap were not easy. The price would apply to buyers outside the region when the E.U. embargo on Russian oil imports kicks in.
The current discount on Russian crude would be locked in by the price cap. Major buyers of Russian oil, like China and India, pay a little more than $60 per barrel, but would not be affected by the cap if they shipped and insured their oil from other countries.
It is not likely to drastically reduce Russia's oil revenues.
There will be another round of sanctions talks this weekend with the aim of imposing new restrictions on the Russian economy. Several hard-line pro-Ukraine European nations, led by Poland, see the price cap as not sufficiently damaging to Russia's export revenues.
Poland was able to negotiate a regular review of the price cap in order to keep an eye on the market. The cap will be reviewed regularly by a committee with a view to setting it at a lower price than the market price of Russian oil. The price quoted by the International Energy Agency will be used to calculate the price of Russian crude.
Soft-touch enforcement will be included in the cap. If buyers pay less than the agreed-upon maximum price, they can still purchase Russian crude. Global shipping and insurance companies, which are mostly based in Europe, will have to impose the price cap on themselves.
If the shipment complies with the price cap, European maritime businesses will be allowed to transport Russian crude outside the bloc. It will be up to these companies to make sure that the Russian oil they are transporting is sold at or below the capped price, otherwise they could be held legally liable for violating sanctions.
Russia will not sell oil under the price cap system. According to maritime data and analysis by the Institute of International Finance, more than half of the Russian oil that is transported out of the country is Greek owned. If Russia switched all of its exports to alternative providers, it would be more expensive and less secure.
The goal of the cap is to keep millions of barrels of Russian oil flowing to the global market as a new wave of European sanctions on Russian oil exports takes effect, avoiding a sudden contraction in supply on global markets that could send gasoline and heating fuel prices soaring.
The position of American officials in the final weeks of negotiations was that it would be better to set a price high enough that Russia would comply with it and use European and American ships and insurance. The Biden administration has told other countries that if they entice Russia to sell into the price cap mechanism, it will be easier to lower the price in the future.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Jim Tankersley, and Alan Rappeport are related.
President Zelensky proposed a new law that would make it impossible for the nation to allow the branch of Christian Orthodoxy to continue.
It would codify the already deep rift in the Eastern Orthodox church if the law is enacted.
Russia is using the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to provide cover for a network of agents who want to undermineUkraine from within. Over the last month, Ukrainian security agencies have been raiding monasteries and religious institutions looking for saboteurs.
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, has interrogated dozens of religious leaders, administering polygraph tests to some, and claimed to have found literature that denies the existence of the Ukrainian people. The church denied the accusations of collaboration between its clergy and Russia.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, 33 priests have been arrested for assisting Russia. The majority of them were charged with gathering intel.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine are competing for the same worshippers.
The Russian Orthodox Church and its leader, Kirill, has strong ties to the president and has supported the invasion.
A group that tracks the movement of parishes says it had more than 12,000 parishes in January. The branch took orders from Russia even though it declared independence. It has condemned the war, but not enough to allay the concerns of the Ukrainian security service.
Mr. Zelensky proposed a law that would make it impossible for religious organizations with ties to the Russian Federation to operate in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky said that the law was needed to make sure that Russia couldn't manipulate Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian Parliament has two months to consider the law.
The religious history of the two countries is very similar. Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians trace their faith back to the conversion of the Grand Prince of Kyiv to Christianity.
The most important religious center for the people known as the Slavs was located in the city of Kyiv. The city fell into decline after it was sacked by the Mongols. The Orthodox church became part of Moscow in 1686 after Russia conquered easternUkraine.
Efforts by Ukrainian Orthodox Christians to break from Moscow were tied to independence movements in the 20th century. Those efforts didn't succeed.
The main spiritual guide for Eastern Orthodoxy, Constantinople, granted independence to the Kyiv branch after Russia's annexation of the peninsula.
Moscow cut ties with the Constantinople ruler. More than 7,000 parishes are part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
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European Union diplomats have agreed on a limit on the price at which Russian oil can be traded outside the bloc.
Russia and its main buyers, including China and India, may not agree with the price set by the Group of 7 industrialized nations.
Key elements of the plan are shown here.
Russia is the main supplier of oil to the western world. Doing so would cause a big hit to the global supply and cause prices to go up. India and Turkey, which are key buyers of Russian crude, would be affected by it.
The United States and allies have come up with a plan to reduce Russia's revenue from each barrel of oil it ships. Russia is on track to earn more this year from oil sales than in 2021, thanks in part to a surge in the global price after the war began.
It is nearly impossible to manipulate the price of a global commodity such as oil according to the U.S. treasury secretary. The plan relies on European dominance of the maritime insurance industry, a web of companies that provide coverage for ships and their cargo, liability for potential spills, and a form of secondary insurance to defray the risk of losses.
Group of 7 countries are where most of the major shipping companies and insurers are located. Unless the shipment has been sold at or below the price set by the G7, those companies can't handle Russian crude. They would be held responsible for violating sanctions if it's not.
The $60 per barrel price is disappointing for some European countries that wanted to see the Kremlin lose more revenue from its oil sales. With the benchmark price of Russian oil having traded between $60 to $100 per barrel in the past three years, the agreed-upon price still allows Moscow to make a lot of money.
The E.U. diplomats were not happy with the American-led process that left them with complex and difficult implementation costs.
It would be better for the US to set a price high enough for Russia to comply with it by continuing to ship oil using European and American infrastructure.
The feasibility of the plan which relies on each party in the supply chain of Russian oil to attest to the price of shipments has been questioned. Russia and other trading partners may try to keep oil flowing by faking records.
Russia will not sell its oil to countries that comply with the pricing mechanism, meaning buyers may find ways around it. When the United Nations tried to impose a similar plan on Iraq, side payments were used to overpay Russia for wheat and other commodities that were not subject to sanctions.
A senior U.S. Treasury official said that it would be more expensive, but not subject to penalties, if China, India and others were to buy Russian oil at any price. The guidance issued by the Treasury Department said that Russian oil that had been sold under the pricing mechanism would not be subject to the sanctions.
If a company is found to have violated the policy, they will not be able to offer services for Russian oil for three months.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff, Jim Tankersley, and Alan Rappeport are related.
The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian embassies have been targeted with bloody packages.
Six letter bombs were sent to offices in Spain, including those of Prime Minister Pedro Snchez and the American and Ukrainian Embassies.
The ministry said the packages were soaked in a liquid and had a strange smell. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the general consulates in Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic received packages.
He said that the Ukrainian foreign minister had ordered increased security at all Ukrainian embassies.
The meaning of the message is being studied by the team. The packages were being investigated by Ukrainian officials.
The residence of the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican was vandalized. The front hall of the ambassador's house was defaced with feces.
Mr. Yurash said in the interview that an investigation was under way. It will be difficult to identify the people who committed the act.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington received a letter with a copy of a critical article. He did not say where it came from.
An Embassy spokeswoman confirmed in an email to the Times that the parcel it received was not dangerous, but that its return address matched that of the other "bloody packages" sent to Ukrainian offices in Europe.
Elisabetta Povoledo was a contributor.
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An adviser to the president of Ukraine has said that between 10,000 and 13,000 of the country's soldiers have been killed since the Russian invasion.
The number of dead and wounded troops has not been given by Moscow or Kyiv. Both sides have lost a lot, according to Western analysts.
According to The Associated Press, the presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told a Ukrainian news station that the military had put the death toll at between 10,000 and 15000. According to The A.P., he said that the number of injured Ukrainian troops was higher.
The Ukrainian military has largely refrained from giving its own casualty numbers, but it frequently posts updates about Russian losses.
In August, the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces said that about 9000 of his country's soldiers had been killed at the front. Since then, the Ukrainians have waged a series of counteroffensives to take back territory from the Russians in the northeast and south of the country.
Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that more than 100,000 of Moscow's troops had been killed or wounded in the war.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was criticized for posting a video in which she claimed that 100,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed. Her spokeswoman said that the video had been taken down because Ms. Von der Leyen's comments were incorrect.
The Chancellor of Germany spoke with the President of Russia on Friday and vowed to continue military support for the Ukrainian people.
The call, which the Germany chancellery said lasted an hour, was the first between the two leaders since September and reflected their sharply diverging views over the potential for peace negotiations.
Russia's attacks on the country's energy infrastructure have led to cuts in electricity and heating supplies in the country.
Ukrainian officials say peace talks can't take place without a withdrawal of Russian troops from their country.
According to American officials, peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are not likely to happen in the near future because both sides think fighting will strengthen their negotiating positions. The final decision about entering negotiations with Russia will be made by a Ukrainian.
President Biden said on Thursday that he would be willing to sit down with Mr. Putin if he was willing to end the war. France wouldn't encourage Ukrainians to make a compromise that won't be accepted by them, according to the president.
According to Mr. Hebestreit, Mr. Scholz urged Mr. Putin to find a solution that involved the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Mr. Hebestreit said that the chancellor denounced the recent Russian strikes on the Ukrainian energy grid and stressed the suffering that they have inflicted on civilians.
Since its defeat in World War II, Germany has generally avoided providing military aid and tacked onto more pacifist foreign policy.
Germany was at the forefront of fostering relations with Russia for a long time. The chancellery has been criticized over the slow pace at which it has supplied weapons and initially resisted imposing sanctions on Russian energy supplies.
According to a description of the conversation from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mr. Putin blamed Berlin and other Western nations for a "destructive" policy of training the Ukrainian military. Mr. Putin called on Germany to rethink its approach to the war, according to the statement.
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The head of the Russian Orthodox Church said this week that the war in Ukraine is the front line of defense of the Russian world.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine asked for legislation to be passed that would ban the operation of religious organizations that are affiliated with centers of influence in Russia.
Kirill supports President Putin and has characterized the war as a fight against liberalism.
Kirill said that Russian interests are more important than national borders.
The Russian world is on the front line of defense. The traditions of Orthodoxy and Russian morality were instilled in people who lived in Russia.
The war in Ukraine has deepened a rift in the Orthodox church in Ukraine, which has split into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which takes its orders from Kyiv, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Mr. Zelensky proposed a law that would make it impossible for religious organizations with ties to the Russian Federation to operate in Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky's announcement was condemned by a member of the Russian clergy.
The pressure is being applied by the government to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Most people in Ukraine identify as Orthodox Christians and the church has been run by Moscow for hundreds of years. Conflicts between the two nations accelerated the process of asserting the Ukrainian church.
The Ukrainian church declared its independence from the Russian Orthodox Church after Kirill supported the war. Many of its clergy members still support the Kremlin.
President Biden said he would talk to Putin if he wanted to end his invasion of Ukraine.
During a news conference at the White House, Mr. Biden said he was prepared to talk to the president if he was willing to do something. I will only do it when I consult with my NATO allies. I won't do it on my own.
The statement was made by Mr. Biden after he condemned Mr. Putin for the invasion.
The spokesman for the Kremlin said that Mr. Putin was still open to contacts and negotiations.
He said that the best way to fulfill our interests is through diplomacy.
He said that the US does not recognize new territories as part of Russia.
After their private meeting, Mr. Biden and Mr.Macron heaped praise on each other, playing down tensions about the handling of the nine-month war in Europe and French anger over what they see as unfair economic policies by the Biden administration.
In the news conference, Mr. Biden said that France and the United States had some slight differences, but never in a fundamental way. He said that the two countries were united in their opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Biden said that they would stand together against brutality. We will continue to support the Ukrainian people in their fight against Russian aggression.
Mr.Macron said that France would continue to support Ukraine and allow its leaders to set their own terms.
He said in English that they wouldn't encourage Ukrainians to make a compromise. He said, "If we want a sustainable peace, we have to respect Ukrainians to decide when and how they will negotiate about their territory and their future."
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There were bombed out cars. A wall is partially collapsed. Life goes on in the city squares.
Ukrainian and other street artists have been adorning the debris of Russia's war inUkraine with evocative, powerful and hopeful works. They have created canvases of buildings and walls that have been hit by missiles.
In recent weeks, works by the British artist Banksy have appeared in Independence Square in the capital, Kyiv, and in a Ukrainian commuter town about 35 miles to the northwest.
The country's resolve during the war has been a recurring theme. There is a pile of destroyed vehicles near a cemetery and a destroyed building in the suburb of Irpin, one of the most fiercely fought towns early in the war.
In the central part of his home city, Zinkivskyi depicted Molotov cocktails on a wall. After fleeing the fighting, he returned as the Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed back the Russians.
Mr. Zinkivskyi said that he was doing this because he wanted to start a new life with new music and art. Three people that I met when I came back, decided to come back as well. Many people see me smiling.
The lions that were orphans during the war in Ukraine have arrived at the Minnesota sanctuary.
The five-month-old animals were taken to The Wildcat Sanctuary in Minnesota this week. The animals were born after the invasion and ranged in age from 4 months to 6 months.
The cats were abandoned as the fighting got worse. They spent the last month in a Polish zoo after being taken in by animal shelters in Odesa and Kyiv.
Tammy Thies, the founder of The Wildcat Sanctuary, said that after their long journey, all fourcubs were merged and were seen cuddling up together.
Three of the fourcubs were born in Odesa and the other in Kyiv. What happened to their parents?
The International Fund for Animal Welfare estimates that there are 200 lions in Ukraine. Sometimes Ukrainians have had to leave their pets behind when they flee their homes.
They face grim outcomes as the war rages on, according to a program manager.
After their final permits were issued this week, the animals were flown from Poland to Chicago and then taken eight hours to the sanctuary.
The sanctuary says that the young lions will have access to a large outdoor habitat full of caves and toys.
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