Russia will not sell oil that is subject to a Western cap even if it has to cut production, President Vladimir Putin’s point man on energy said in response to a $60 per barrel price limit on Russian seaborne crude oil agreed by the Group of Seven and Australia on Friday. OIL PRICE CAP
* Russia, the world’s second largest oil exporter, will not sell oil that is subject to a Western price cap even if it has to cut production, President Vladimir Putin’s point man on energy said on Sunday. * The Group of Seven (G7) and Australia on Friday agreed a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil after European Union members overcame resistance from Poland.
* Moldova won’t pay a 50% advance to Russia’s Gazprom by Dec. 20 for its December gas supplies, Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu said on Sunday. * The $60 price cap on seaborne Russian oil is not serious and will do little to deter Russia from waging its war, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
* Russia said it would continue to find buyers for its oil, despite what it said was a “dangerous” attempt by Western governments to introduce a price cap on its oil exports. DIPLOMACY
* Macron said Europe needed to address Putin’s fear that “NATO comes right up to its doors” and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia, as Europe prepares it future security architecture. * Putin is not sincere about peace talks with Ukraine while he is taking the war to a new level of “barbarism” by trying to turn off the lights of civilians, a top U.S. diplomat said.
* Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu held talks with his Belarusian counterpart, the state-run Belta news agency said. Belarus has said it will not enter the war in Ukraine but President Alexander Lukashenko has in the past ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, citing threats to Belarus from Kyiv and the West. * Sweden deported a Kurdish man with alleged ties to Turkish militants as Ankara keeps up pressure on the Nordic country to meet its demands in return for NATO membership, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported.
FIGHTING * U.S. intelligence expects the reduced tempo in fighting in Ukraine to continue in the next several months and sees no evidence of a reduced Ukrainian will to resist, despite attacks on its power grid and other critical winter infrastructure, the Director of National Intelligence said on Saturday.
* Ukrainian families waited in bitter cold on Sunday for their loved ones to cross from the Russian-held bank of the Dnipro River to Kherson, a city that since Ukraine recaptured it from Russian forces last month has been under heavy shelling. * Russia is likely planning to encircle the Donetsk Oblast town of Bakhmut with tactical advances to the north and south, Britain’s defence ministry said.
ART ATTACK * A group sliced a Banksy mural off a battle-scarred wall in Ukraine, but the people were spotted and the image of a woman in a gas mask and dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher was under police protection, the governor of Kyiv region said. (Compiled by Robert Birsel, William Maclean and Alexander Smith)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
