The Wall Street journal reported on Thursday, that according to unofficial sources, the European Commission has proposed a price cap of $60 US dollars per barrel on Russian oil.

"Yes, these negotiations have been going on. We've wanted it to be below the market price all along. If the market price is $68 at the moment, $60 is certainly below market price," Kallas said, while speaking at a government press conference.

"What we have to understand; is that there are very many different interests. We have been talking about sanctions on Russian oil from the beginning, that it feeds the Russian war machine and that those revenues have to be taken away," she added.

"We are quite close to reaching an agreement. I hope it will come during the course of today," Kallas said.

Guardian: 'Hawkish' Estonia under pressure to accept cap

Estonia is under pressure to abandon its threat to veto the US-advocated cap on the price of Russian oil exports, the UK's Guardian newspaper wrote on Thursday.

All EU members must agree to the policy. Estonia, Poland and Lithuania are currently against the cap.

The newspaper quoted one Baltic official as saying: "We have to squeeze Russian revenues. There is no point doing this otherwise. False narratives that we are changing the balance of power with Russia through sanctions ends up making fools of ourselves as democracies."

The row is a technical dispute about the true market price of Russian crude, but for Baltic states this is an existential issue since they fear Ukraine will eventually be forced into a surrender unless the west quickly raises the cost of the war for Russia, the Guardian wrote.

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