The EU has approved the eighteenth sanctions package after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico agreed to drop his veto, saying that he had run out of negotiating options on July 18.

The latest package against Russia was described by EU foreign policy chief and former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as among the most extensive to date. The package drops the cut off price on the oil price cap sanctions , lists more shadow fleet tankers and stiffens financial sanctions on Russian banking, amongst other things.

“The EU just approved one of its strongest sanctions packages of Russia to date,” Kallas said, who is one of Russia’s most dedicated foes.

The eighteenth sanctions package includes a reduction in the G7 price cap on Russian seaborne oil from $60 to $47.6 per barrel, Reuters reports. The price cap, originally introduced in December 2022, aims to limit Russia’s oil revenue while avoiding disruption to global energy markets.

Previously, the EU was discussing introducing a floating rate oil price sanctions cap of 15% below market rates for the Urals blend, Russia’s main export product. However, the White House has objected to lowering the oil price cap further for fear of causing an oil price spike ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

It remains unclear if Washington has signed off on Europe’s decision to lower the cap, but analysts previously speculated that Europe has decided to go it alone with this change and hopes the US will follow along.

The reduction in the cut off price will largely affect European shipping companies, particularly from Greece and Malta, which have still been carrying Russian oil despite the tensions, after the price of Russia’s Ural’s blend – the price of which the sanctions are tethered to – fell below $60, allowing EU registered ships to legally carry Russian oil.

The latest measures also target 105 vessels linked to Russia’s so-called "shadow fleet," which the Kremlin has successfully used to largely circumvent sanctions and embargoes.

Additional provisions affect enablers of the fleet, the Russian banking system, and impose a ban on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. The measures against Nord Stream were introduced after a US investor began efforts to buy the pipelines with the intention of eventually restarting Russian piped gas deliveries to Europe. With the new sanctions in place that deal is now impossible.

For the first time, the EU has sanctioned a flag registry used by Russia and has extended restrictions to cover Rosneft’s largest refinery in India. Kallas said the bloc is also targeting individuals involved in the forced indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

Ukraine welcomed the measures. “We welcome the EU's 18th sanctions package against Russia — the most comprehensive to date,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said. “Every measure chips away at the aggressor’s capacity to wage war.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the decision “timely, especially now, as a response to the fact that Russia has intensified the brutality of the strikes on our cities and villages.” He added that Kyiv is preparing to synchronise European sanctions within its own jurisdiction and develop further national measures.

The agreement was reached after Slovakia dropped its objections, having blocked the package six times. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, whose administration has taken positions aligned with Moscow, said on July 17 that “negotiating options have been exhausted for now, and continuing our blocking position would now endanger our interests.”

Fico has been using his veto to gain leverage over Brussels which intends to ban all Russian gas imports from 2028, a decision that does not need the approval of all 27 member states. Slovakia has a long-term gas supply contract with Russia’s state-owned Gazprom that runs to 2034 and wants to keep the deal which supplies it with cheap gas.

Fico said the European Commission provided Slovakia with “written guarantees” concerning the phase-out of Russian gas imports, but gave no details. Fico has been holding out for an exemption to the ban, which he has been enjoying until now, but reportedly Kallas was flatly refusing this option. According to reports, the EU has offered guaranteed alternative supplies of gas but has not offered financial guarantees on the price of that guess that Fico was holding out for.