Zelensky: $60 oil barrel price cap is comfortable for Russia’s budget

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the long discussion leading to the $60 barrel price cap on Russian oil has finished “without big decisions."

“It's a weak position. And it's only a matter of time before stronger tools will have to be used anyway. It is a pity that this time will be lost,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s president said if the price limit for Russian oil is $60 instead of $30, as Poland and the Baltic States proposed, the Russian budget will receive about a hundred billion dollars annually.

“This money will go not only to the war and not only to Russia's further sponsoring of other terrorist regimes and organizations. This money will also be used to further destabilize precisely those countries that are now trying to avoid strong decisions (against Russia)," Zelensky said.

Earlier on Dec. 2, G7 countries and Australia agreed on a $60 per barrel price cap following the EU agreement to set a price cap for Russian seaborne crude oil.

The decision was made after overcoming resistance from Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania, whose leaders called for the cap to be as low as possible to cause maximum damage to Russia’s shrinking economy. An embargo on Russian seaborne oil approved by the EU in June will take effect on Dec. 5, while the US, UK, Canada, and Australia have already banned Russian oil.

Financial Times reported that Russia assembled a "shadow fleet" of tankers to help blunt oil sanctions.

On Nov. 21, Bloomberg reported that Russia has already lost the vast majority of its oil market in the European Union’s northern countries even before an EU embargo on Russian oil is set to take effect.

According to Bloomberg, Russian oil shipments to Northern Europe have fallen below 100,000 barrels a day, compared to 1.2 million barrels a day sent to the region’s ports each day in early February.