EU leaders say gas unlikely to be part of new round of Russia sanctions

The Estonian PM, Kaja Kallas, said the next round of sanctions will be ‘politically difficult to decide’. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

EU leaders suggested Russian gas was unlikely to be part of the next round of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s war machine, hours after agreeing a historic but incomplete oil embargo.

After nearly a month of wrangling, the EU agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, with an exemption for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These landlocked central European countries, heavily dependent on Russian oil, can continue being supplied via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline for an indeterminate period.