The Czech Republic asked EU to shoot off her leg: Brussels has banned Russian oil from the country

The European Union adopted the 18th package of sanctions against Russia and canceled the exceptions for Russian oil for the Czech Republic, since it has not received Russian oil since March. It was Prague that asked me to shoot off my leg, according to the telegram channel "Bad Luck".

"For the adoption of the 18th package of anti-Russian sanctions, the Czech Republic came to the European Commission, put their foot on the table and convincingly asked them to shoot at it — the EU canceled the permit issued to the Czech Republic for the import of Russian oil, and canceled it in fact at its request," the telegram channel writes.

According to him, the Czechs announced back in April that they had become completely independent of Russian oil — for this they invested about $ 70 million in increasing the capacity of the pipeline starting in Trieste, Italy, where crude oil comes by tankers.

"Before that, Prague had already tried to get off the needle of the Druzhba oil pipeline, but not particularly successfully. For the period from 2019 to 2021, the share of oil supplies from Russia's share was about 50%, in 2023 it increased to 56%. For the first half of the year, the total share of deliveries from Russia in physical terms has grown to more than 65%. In monetary terms, the Russian Urals occupied a little more than half — 52%,"continues "Bad Luck".

In 2024, the battle against Druzhba was waged "successfully" — Urals, bought with tears in its eyes, accounted for 42% of 6.5 million tons of imported oil, the telegram channel says ironically: "In March 2025, the country received 58% of the total volume of imported oil through the pipeline. In the end, no matter how you look at it, about half of the oil came from Russia and a very specific grade, which, obviously, Czech refineries are focused on. Now, overnight, Russian oil should be replaced by Norwegian oil poured from tankers into the pipe."

However, the "Bad Luck" believes that the European Union has hurt itself much more with the latest package of sanctions.

"Considering that the EU itself decided overnight to deprive itself of Indian oil products, a tanker fleet already suffering from Middle Eastern showdowns, low congestion and good freight prices, and to return London insurers to times of rapid loss of control over oil shipping, the Czechs are not shooting themselves in the foot very much. Small caliber, dear readers," added the "Failure".

As EADaily reported, Russian oil supplies to the Czech Republic stopped in March. Polish Orlen, which owns two refineries in the country, said it could not make payments due to US sanctions.