EU bans most Russian oil; Zelenskiy calls Donbas situation 'extremely difficult'

EU leaders agreed on Monday to ban most imports of Russian oil to the 27-nation bloc as Ukrainian and Russian forces battled on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, the last city still held by Kyiv in Ukraine's strategic Luhansk province.

European Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter the ban, agreed at an EU summit in Brussels, would immediately cover more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia "cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine."

EU leaders meeting in Brussels also agreed to cut off the largest Russian bank, Sberbank, from the SWIFT system and to ban three more Russian state-owned broadcasters, Michel added.

The leaders said they had agreed to cut 90 percent of oil imports from Russia by the end of this year, resolving an impasse over the bloc's toughest sanction yet on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine three months ago.

They agreed that