TOP HEADLINES:

· Turkey is blocking 28 oil tankers mostly bound for EU ports from leaving the Black Sea because they do not have proper insurance. The move has frustrated western nations who are responsible for the ban on insuring ships that transport Russian oil for sale above the newly implemented price cap.

· Belgium, Italy, Poland and Slovenia are among a group of countries that are calling for a "significantly" lower EU cap on gas prices, as the bloc struggles to strike a deal on the measure.

· Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his accusation that the West was "exploiting" Ukraine and using its people as "cannon fodder" in the war.

· The Russian-installed administration of Ukraine's Kherson region is changing Ukrainian currency, known as hryvnia, for Russian roubles after confirming a ban on hryvnia from January 1.

· Belarus told the United Nations on Friday that it would allow, without preconditions, the transit of grain from Ukraine through its territory for export from Lithuanian ports, a U.N. spokesman said.

· Jailed Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski believes Russia wants to turn Ukraine into a "dependent dictatorship" like Belarus,  according to his wife who collected the prize on his behalf.

IN DETAIL

Russian oil price cap plan backfires on EU

Turkey emerged as a critical stumbling block to a complex international plan to deprive Russia of wartime oil revenues as the number of tankers waiting to exit the Black Sea through Turkish straits continued to rise.

Ankara has declined to scrap a new insurance inspection rule it implemented at the beginning of the month despite days of pressure from Western officials.

A total of 28 oil tankers are in a queue seeking to leave the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, the Tribeca shipping agency said and Turkish authorities confirmed the vast majority were EU vessels, with a large part of the oil destined for EU ports.

G7 wealthy countries, the European Union and Australia agreed to bar providers of shipping services, such as insurers, from helping export Russian oil unless it adheres to their price cap on Russian oil but now Turkey is refusing to let ships through without proper insurance

Western insurers said they could not provide the documents required by Turkey as it might expose them to sanctions if it emerged that the oil cargoes they covered were sold at prices that exceeded the cap.

The Turkish authority said that in the event of an accident involving a vessel in breach of sanctions it was possible the damage would not be covered by an international oil-spill fund.