Britain announces its largest sanctions package against Russia; the G7 backs off of strengthening a price ceiling for Russian oil.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that today the UK will announce a new package of sanctions against Russia. As he specified, this is the largest package of sanctions the UK has produced since the beginning of the war, and the sanctions are designed to undermine the Kremlin’s military machine and reduce the revenues that “fuel the war in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the G7 countries, in a communiqué on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, abandoned their call to strengthen the price ceiling for Russian oil. The initial version of the communiqué “has been significantly softened,” with Russia’s actions no longer described as “illegal”.

As the NYT wrote, the US blocked the inclusion of wording defining Russia as the aggressor in the war with Ukraine in the G7 statement. Canada prepared the first draft of the statement, maintaining a pro-Ukrainian tone. But the American side removed all references that could be interpreted as supportive of Ukraine. The document now has a neutral tone and does not contain direct references to Russia as the aggressor or Ukraine as the victim.