G-7 leaders end summit pledging to hurt Russia economically

Elmau (Germany): Leaders of the world's wealthiest democracies struck a united stance to support Ukraine for as long as it takes as Russia's invasion grinds on, and said they would explore far-reaching steps to cap Kremlin income from oil sales that are financing the war.

The final statement Tuesday from the Group of Seven summit in Germany underlined their intent to impose severe and immediate economic costs on Russia. It left out key details on how the fossil fuel price caps would work in practice, setting up more discussion in the weeks ahead to explore measures to bar imports of Russian oil above a certain level.

That would hit a key Russian source of income and, in theory, help relieve the energy price spikes and inflation afflicting the global economy as a result of the war.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to our unprecedented coordination on sanctions for as long as necessary, acting in unison at every stage," the leaders said.

Leaders also agreed on a ban on imports of Russian gold and to step up aid to countries hit with food shortages by the blockage on Ukraine grain shipments through the Black Sea.

The price cap would in theory work by barring service provides such as shippers or insurers from dealing with oil priced above a fixed level.

That could work because the service providers are mostly located in the European Union or the UK and thus within reach of sanctions.

To be effective, however, it would have to involve as many consuming countries as possible, in particular India, where refiners have been snapping up cheap Russian oil shunned by Western traders. Details on how the proposal would be implemented were left for continuing talks in coming weeks.