The Saudi-led OPEC oil cartel and allied producers including Russia did not change their targets for shipping oil to the global economy amid uncertainty about the impact of new Western sanctions against Russia that could take significant amounts of oil off the market. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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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 Zelenskiy'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 U.S. 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 U.S. director of national intelligence, said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California
5:53pm: 'No diplomatic solution' to Ukraine war, says Nobel winner
There is currently no diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine, a co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian rights organisation Memorial said Sunday.
"I am absolutely convinced that there is not a diplomatic solution with Putin's regime, so long as it is still there," said Irina Scherbakova.
"The solution that there will now be is a military one," said Scherbakova, who was presented with an award for her human rights work at a ceremony in Hamburg, Germany.
There would ultimately be some form of diplomatic resolution to the conflict, she said.
"But these decisions, this diplomacy will only happen when Ukraine believes it has won this war and can set its terms," she said.
Hasty calls for peace were "childish", she said, adding that things would not return to the way they were before the outbreak of the conflict.
2:45pm: OPEC+ agrees to keep output levels unchanged
Major oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed Sunday to maintain their current output levels in a climate of uncertainty and ahead of fresh sanctions against Moscow coming into force next week.
The representatives of the thirteen members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Riyadh, and their 10 allies headed by Moscow, decided to stick to their course agreed in October of a production cut of two million barrels per day until the end of 2023.
OPEC+ described its October decision to cut as one "which was purely driven by market considerations", adding that it had been "the necessary and the right course of action towards stabilizing global oil markets", a statement said.
The next OPEC+ ministerial meeting is scheduled for June 4, 2023.
2:31pm: Russia mulls banning oil supplies subject to Western price cap
Russia is working on the possibility of banning oil supplies subject to a Western-imposed price cap, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Sunday.
"We are working on mechanisms to prohibit the use of a price cap instrument, regardless of what level is set, because such interference could further destabilise the market," Novak said.
Russia will not operate under a price cap, even if Moscow has to cut production, Novak said.
His comments came two days after the G7, EU and Australia agreed a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian shipbound oil exports.
1:05pm: More than 500 Ukrainian localities without power
More than 500 Ukrainian localities remained without power Sunday following weeks of Russian airstrikes on the electric grid, an interior ministry official said.
"The enemy continues to attack the country's essential infrastructure. Currently, 507 localities in eight regions of our country are cut off from electricity supplies," deputy interior minister Yevgueny Yenin told Ukrainian television. "The Kharkiv region is the worst hit with 112 isolated villages," Yenin added.
Another 90 villages were cut off in the Donetsk and Kherson regions, he said, with others in the regions of Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk.
On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities – including Mykolaiv region governor Vitali Kim – once again urged civilians to bear up in the face of continually deteriorating early winter conditions and regular power outages.
Repeated daily power cuts have left millions of people without heat or lighting while outside temperatures have dropped below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) in recent days. With further strikes on the network widely expected, Ukrainians fear a difficult prolonged winter as well as a flood of departures by refugees from a war now into a tenth month.
7:05am: Zelensky welcomes oil price cap, but says it's a 'weak position'
Following the price cap enacted on Saturday by the G7 countries and Australia on Russian oil imports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who welcomed the measure at first, shifted his tone calling the price limit weak and insufficient.
7:00am: 'Millions of Ukrainians are making do without heating or lighting'
The situation in Ukrainian cities is dire after constant Russian shelling and an almost complete absence of electricity due to Russian attacks on the country's power infrastructure.
2:41am: Opec+ likely to maintain oil output levels
Major oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia look set to maintain their current output levels at a meeting Sunday, ahead of fresh sanctions against Moscow coming into force.
The 13-member Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is due to consult with 10 other oil-producing nations, including Russia, to review their decision in October to cut production by two million barrels per day. The OPEC+ videoconference will take place from 1100 GMT Sunday.
On Friday, the EU, G7 and Australia agreed a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, which will come into effect on Monday or soon after, alongside an EU embargo on maritime deliveries of Russian crude oil.
It will prevent seaborne shipments of Russian crude to the European Union, which account for two thirds of the bloc's oil imports from Russia, an attempt to deprive Moscow's war chest of billions of euros.
While Russia denounced the incoming price cap on Saturday, threatening to suspend deliveries to any country that adopted the measure, Ukraine suggested the cap should have been set even lower. For OPEC+, the big unknown in the oil equation is how heavily sanctions will hit Russian supply.
1:00am: US expects reduced Ukraine fighting tempo to continue for months
US intelligence expects the reduced tempo in fighting in Ukraine to continue in the next several months and sees no evidence of a reduced Ukrainian will to resist, despite attacks on its power grid and other critical winter infrastructure, the Director of National Intelligence said on Saturday.
"We're seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict ... and we expect that's likely to be what we see in the coming months," Avril Haines told the annual Reagan National Defence Forum in California. She said both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries would be looking to try to refit and resupply to prepare for a counter-offensive after the winter, but there was a question as to what that would look like, and added:
"We actually have a fair amount of skepticism as to whether or not the Russians will be in fact prepared to do that. I think more optimistically for the Ukrainians in that timeframe."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
