00:00The European Union has agreed to impose a new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting the country's energy and financial sectors.
00:09The sanctions, endorsed on Friday by ambassadors in Brussels, banned transactions with 22 Russian banks, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and its subsidiaries, and the direct and indirect use of the underwater Nord Stream pipelines.
00:25Those pipelines are currently closed off, but Moscow seeks to restart them at some point in the future.
00:32The EU also placed a price cap on Russian crude oil to make it remain 15% lower than the average market price.
00:40The latest sanctions came about from a political breakthrough after Slovakia relented and lifted its veto, which had until now prevented the approval of new sanctions against Moscow.
00:51They are also seen as part of efforts by the EU to tighten the screws on the Kremlin's war machine and force a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine.
