U.S. President Joe Biden has announced a U.S. ban on Russian oil imports, calling it a "powerful blow” to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
In an address at the White House on March 8, Biden also warned Americans that "defending freedom is going to cost."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed several times to the West to stop importing energy supplies from Russia, Moscow's main source of revenue.
Biden predicted prices would rise further as a result of "Putin's war," but pledged to do all he could to minimize the impact on the American people. He also warned U.S. gas companies against exploiting the situation to engage in profiteering or price gouging.
SEE ALSO: Energy Giant Shell Withdrawing From Russia, Will Stop Buying Moscow's Oil And GasBiden also said Putin would never win in Ukraine.
"Russia may continue to grind out its advance at a horrible price but this much is already clear -- Ukraine will never be a victory for Putin," Biden also said. "Putin may be able to take a city, but he'll never be able to hold the country."
About 8 percent of oil imports by the United States come from Russia, it does not import any Russian natural gas. Biden had earlier resisted targeting energy with sanctions, saying he did not want to hurt U.S. consumers with a move that would likely trigger higher fuel costs.
"This is definitely for domestic consumption. I don't think it has much impact at all on total U.S. oil supplies, gasoline prices, or anything like that," Karen Young, director of the energy and economics program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told RFE/RL.
"It's certainly also not something that our European partners can follow suit with. And I just hope that [the U.S. oil ban] doesn't create distance between what to this point has been a very cohesive policy and sanctions policy against Russia."
Europe imports about 25 percent of its oil needs from Russia.
EU leaders are scheduled to meet in Versailles outside Paris for a two-day summit starting on March 10 and will be working on ways to reduce their dependency on Moscow for fossil fuels.
The European Commission already has proposals to make it happen, including diversifying natural-gas supplies and speeding up renewable energy development. The EU's executive arm said its measures "can reduce EU demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year."
"We must become independent from Russian oil, coal, and gas,” commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. "We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he opposes a European ban on Russian energy imports and that there's no other way to meet the European Union's needs for motor fuel, heat and electricity, and industrial use.
Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said on March 8 that when he visited Washington last week, U.S. officials acknowledged Europe was in a different situation.
After Setbacks, Putin 'May Escalate'
Earlier on March 8, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned that sanctions and setbacks on the battlefield were unlikely to prompt Putin to change course in Ukraine, and could even spur him to ratchet up his offensive.
Speaking at a hearing on global security threats at the U.S. House of Representatives on March 8, Haines said the escalating costs of the war in Ukraine, which has likely caused thousands of Russian casualties, may agitate Putin and change his outlook on what could be considered a victory.
"Our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks and instead may escalate," Haines said.
Haines said the United States believes Moscow underestimated Ukraine's ability to fend off an attack, and that it remains unclear as to whether Putin seeks to take control over Ukraine as a whole, for which he would need to allocate more resources, or try to carve out smaller areas.