Live: G7 price cap on Russian oil comes into force

Issued on: 05/12/2022 – 08:22Modified: 05/12/2022 – 08:23

06:00am: Russia tribunal faces major hurdles, experts say

While Ukraine and the West dream of a tribunal that could put Vladimir Putin in the dock for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts warn such a court would face formidable challenges.

The EU has proposed a “specialised court” backed by the UN to prosecute Russia’s “crime of aggression”, in one of the most concrete steps so far.

The plan would get around the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) can investigate war crimes in Ukraine, but cannot try the “leadership” crime of aggression in Russia’s case.

Yet serious questions remain about a special court’s feasibility and legitimacy – let alone about whether the Kremlin or Russian military leaders would ever end up on trial.

“On both legal and practical levels there are considerable obstacles,” Cecily Rose, assistant professor of public international law at Leiden University, told AFP.

01:28am: Ukraine, Baltics rebuke Macron for suggesting ‘security guarantees’ for Russia

French President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion the West should consider Russia’s need for security guarantees if Moscow agrees to talks to end the war in Ukraine unleashed a storm of criticism in Kyiv and its Baltic allies over the weekend.

In an interview with French TV station TF1, Macron said that Europe needs to prepare its future security architecture and also think “how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that it is the world that needs security guarantees from Russia, not the other way around.

“Civilized world needs ‘security guarantees’ from barbaric intentions of post-Putin Russia,” Podolyak said on Twitter on Sunday.

12:08am: G7 price cap on Russian seaborne oil kicks in

The Group of Seven price cap on Russian seaborne oil came into force on Monday as the West tries to limit Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine, but Russia has said it will not abide by the measure even if it has to cut production.

The price cap, to be enforced by the G7, the European Union and Australia, comes on top of the EU’s embargo on imports of Russian crude by sea and similar pledges by the United States, Canada, Japan and Britain.

It allows Russian oil to be shipped to third-party countries using G7 and EU tankers, insurance companies and credit institutions, only if the cargo is bought at or below the price cap.

Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, said on Sunday it would not accept  the cap and would not sell oil that is subject to it, even if it has to cut production.

11:05pm: US intel chief thinking ‘optimistically’ for Ukraine forces

The head of US intelligence says fighting in Russia’s war in Ukraine is running at a “reduced tempo” and suggests Ukrainian forces could have brighter prospects in coming months.

Avril Haines alluded to past allegations by some that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advisers could be shielding him from bad news — for Russia — about war developments, and said he “is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia.” 

“But it’s still not clear to us that he has a full picture of at this stage of just how challenged they are,” Haines, the US director of national intelligence, said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)