The European Commission has proposed to ban selling oil tankers to Russia to slow down the country's growing hydrocarbon exports that bypass Western sanctions, Reuters reported on Nov. 17.
Any sales of tankers to a third country would include clauses forbidding the subsequent resale of ships to Russia or freighting Russian oil products in defiance of Western price caps, such as $60 per barrel of crude.
"The price cap mechanism relies on an attestation process that enables operators in the supply chain of sea-borne Russian oil to demonstrate that it has been purchased at or below the price cap," Reuters reported, citing the document.
Russia's hydrocarbon exports are a major source of the revenue it uses to maintain its war machine. After sanctions and import restrictions on Russian resources to Western markets, Russia has intensified the sale of oil to countries that haven't joined in, such as India and China.
Besides producing weapons and ammunition, oil revenue can also be used to pay competitive salaries to mercenaries and contract soldiers, enticing them to fight for against Ukraine.
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News Feed
Tuesday, December 30
Ukraine’s top commander said a battalion commander will face a legal review after Ukrainian troops abandoned a command post in the Huliaipole sector, leaving behind equipment and potentially sensitive materials.
Zelensky tells Fox News' Bret Baier that Ukraine has demonstrated concrete steps toward peace over the past month and raised the possibility of a referendum on the peace plan. At the same time, a referendum would not legitimize withdrawing from Ukrainian territory, given the current security realities.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Dec. 29 that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence, an allegation Kyiv has denied. "I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it," Trump said.
Monday, December 29
(Updated: )
Zelensky dismissed Russian claims that Ukrainian drones targeted Putin’s residence as “another lie,” warning Moscow is using the allegation as a pretext for possible strikes on Kyiv and government buildings.
Kyiv failed to implement nine indicators in the last three months of 2025, the highest number missed in any quarter since the Ukraine Facility began in 2024, according to a Dec. 29 assessment by RRR4U.
(Updated: )
"President Trump has concluded a positive call with President Putin concerning Ukraine," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Ukraine’s Southern Operational Command says Huliaipole is now a gray zone, with no clear front line anymore, according to spokesperson Vladyslav Voloshyn.
(Updated: )
"I told (Trump) that we would like to consider guarantees for 30, 40, or even 50 years, and that would be a historic decision by president Trump. The president said he would think about it," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Russian troops shot dead two unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war on Dec. 27 in the village of Shakhove near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported on Dec. 29, in what appeared to be at least the third reported case this month of captured Ukrainian soldiers being killed after being taken prisoner.
(Updated: )
Explosions reportedly rocked the Khanskaya military airfield near the southern Russian city of Maykop as air defenses were engaged late on Dec. 29.
(Updated: )Peace Plan
Trump's Mar-a-Lago meeting with Zelensky ends without agreement on how peace in Ukraine should look.
"They're going to be helping. Russia is going to be helping," U.S. President Donald Trump said when asked if Moscow would hold any responsibility for Ukraine's reconstruction.
