European Commission

The European Commission has amended its proposal for an embargo on Russian oil to extend the pre-entry period for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This was reported by Reuters, citing two sources.

The European Commission is proposing a ban on imports of all Russian oil. The ban is part of the EU's sixth package of sanctions, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented today at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The European Union's leader on Wednesday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions targeting Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch vice-president of the bloc’s executive body, offered the remarks at a meeting of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee

"Bulgaria is able to replace all gas supplies from Russia", Deputy Prime Minister Asen Vassilev told reporters in Brussels.

He visited the European Commission together with the Minister of Energy Alexander Nikolov. The visit was due to Gazprom's decision to suspend gas for Bulgaria.

"Gazprom's announcement that it will unilaterally cut off gas supplies to customers in Europe is another attempt by Russia to use gas as a tool for extortion," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. According to her, Gazprom's decision is unjustified and unacceptable and once again shows Russia's unreliability as a gas supplier.

In Kyiv, they say that the Ukrainian army is moving to the NATO standard.
Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations announced yesterday that Ukraine has refused to sign the agreement on the safety of nuclear power plants, which was initiated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Ukraine has completed the questionnaire for accession to the European Union. This was announced by a representative of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The questionnaire was presented to the Ukrainian president by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Kyiv on April 8th.

The European Commission has proposed an accelerated path to Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

At a meeting between EC President Ursula von der Leyen and President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine received a special questionnaire as a step towards granting EU candidate status.

Shortly afterwards, the Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger spoke up, saying that his country had donated its S-300 air defense system to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression.