International sanctions

At his garage in the south of Moscow, 35-year-old mechanic Ivan is starting to worry.    

With billions of dollars in financial reserves and money still coming in from oil and gas exports, Russia has yet to feel the full impact of the barrage of Western sanctions imposed over its offensive in Ukraine.    

But Ivan sees storm clouds on the horizon.    

At the extraordinary summit in Brussels, the leaders of the European Union reached an agreement on the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes an embargo on oil imports, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

European Union leaders have backed an embargo on "more than two-thirds" of Russian oil imports, European Council President Charles Michel was quoted as saying on Twitter.

During the ongoing summit in Brussels, Michel also commented that the maximum pressure on Russia will end the war, and the oil embargo cuts a huge source of funding for the military machine.

The EU leaders are meeting to discuss the 6th package of sanctions against Russia

Today, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressed concern that the European Union's unity "begins to fall apart" ahead of tomorrow's summit to discuss the oil embargo against Russia and plans to reduce dependence on Russian energy sources.

China and Russia have vetoed a US attempt to impose new UN sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the organization's Security Council for the first time since the body began imposing sanctions on Pyongyang in 2006, Reuters reported.

The European Commission is proposing to confiscate the assets and property of violators of EU sanctions. This is stated in a statement issued by the EC in Brussels.

"Today, the European Commission has proposed that violations of EU restrictive measures be included in the EU's list of crimes," the statement said.

"International sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military campaign in Ukraine must be lifted to avoid a global food crisis", Russia's deputy foreign minister has said.

The Hungarian government will be given extraordinary powers to respond more quickly to the challenges posed by the war in Ukraine. This was explained by Prime Minister Viktor Orban three months after Russia invaded his country's northeastern neighbor.

At the state level, while all EU countries have unanimously approved the five rounds sanctions against these Russian/Belarusian entities and individuals, they have done so with varying degrees of enthusiasm.