90% Ban On Russian Oil Import Will Be Painful For EU Members, Says Austrian Chancellor

A European Union embargo on Russian oil will be painful for members of the bloc as well as Moscow, according to Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer.

“The decision to impose the oil embargo is a measure that will certainly be painful in itself for the member states,” Nehammer said upon arrival to an extraordinary European Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

“But you have to be realistic, the pain we are suffering is nothing compared to what the Ukrainian people have to endure,” he added.

The leaders of the EU member states agreed on Monday to ban most Russian oil imports as part of a sixth package of sanctions against Moscow.

Nehammer said that the gas embargo will not be included in this new package of sanctions.

“Gas behaves very differently from oil in terms of security of supply,” he said. “It is much easier to compensate for oil by not using Russian oil.”

The agreement will ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year.

Russian oil delivered by tankers will be banned, while an exemption will be made for the southern segment of the Druzhba pipeline, which accounts for 10% of imports on Russian oil, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Monday following a summit in Brussels.

The northern segment of the pipeline serves Poland and Germany, which have agreed to the embargo. The southern part goes to Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic.