In what would be the toughest measures yet to punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine, the European Union’s top official on Wednesday proposed a phased oil embargo on Russia, sanctions on its top bank and a ban on Russian broadcasters from European airwaves.

The EU’s sixth round of sanctions, if agreed by member states, would be a watershed for the world’s largest trading bloc, which is dependent on Russian oil and gas and must find alternative supplies just as energy prices are spiking.

Reluctance to deliver sanctions that will hurt EU economies, as well as Moscow, faded in recent weeks as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought horrific images of slaughter in towns and concern about a renewed offensive in the east of the country.

Reflecting widespread anger in the West at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign – which Moscow says is a "special military operation" to defeat dangerous nationalists – the head of the EU executive arm said Moscow must face consequences.

"Putin must pay a price, a high price, for his brutal aggression," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"Today, we will propose to ban all Russian oil from Europe," she said to applause in the chamber.

"We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, in a way that allows us and our partners to secure alternative supply routes and minimizes the impact on global markets," she added.

The commission’s measures include phasing out supplies of Russian crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of 2022. Von der Leyen pledged to minimize the impact on European economies.

The price of Brent crude rose around 3% to more than $108 a barrel in early trading.

If agreed, the embargo would follow the United States and Britain, which have already imposed bans to cut one of the largest income streams to the Russian economy, as the West buys more than half of its crude and petroleum products from Russia.

The EU gets about 25% of its oil from Russia, most of which goes toward gasoline and diesel for vehicles. Russia supplies about 14% of diesel, S&P Global analysts said, and a cutoff could send already high prices for truck and tractor fuel towering.

The EU has started discussions on a possible natural gas embargo, but consensus among member countries on targeting the fuel used to generate electricity and heat homes is more difficult to secure. The region gets about 40% of its natural gas from Russia.

In a sign of the political pressure that von der Leyen has been under to widen EU sanctions on Russian energy, some European Parliament members on Wednesday stepped up calls for the bloc to target imports of natural gas from Russia as well.

"That’s great news that we are moving on the oil embargo," Luis Garicano, a Spanish member of the EU assembly, said after von der Leyen’s announcement. "But as you know this is far short of what this parliament wants. We actually asked a month ago for a full embargo on gas and oil," he added.

Von der Leyen conceded that getting all 27 member countries – some of them landlocked and highly dependent on Russia for energy supplies – to agree on oil sanctions "will not be easy."

"We are addressing our dependency on Russian oil. And let’s be clear, it will not be easy because some member states are strongly dependent on Russian oil, but we simply have to do it," she said.

Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 governments are widely expected to adopt the commission proposals as early as this week, allowing them to become law soon after.

However, Hungary indicated that it could trip the latest EU sanctions package up.

Although it – along with Slovakia – will be given until the end of 2023 to wean itself off Russian oil because of its high dependency, Budapest said the proposal did not spell out how its energy security would be guaranteed.

"We do not see any plans or guarantees on how a transition could be managed based on the current proposals, and how Hungary’s energy security would be guaranteed," Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs said.

Simone Tagliapietra of the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank said a gradual embargo on Russian oil was risky.

"In the short term it might leave Russian revenues high while implying negative consequences for the EU and the global economy in terms of higher prices – not to mention retaliation risks (by Russia) on natural gas supplies," Tagliapietra said.

Apart from oil, banks are also in the EU executive arm’s sights, and notably Sberbank. Von der Leyen said the aim is that "we de-SWIFT Sberbank." SWIFT is the major global system for financial transfers.

Von der Leyen said Sberbank holds around 37% of the Russian banking sector.

"And we will also de-SWIFT two other major banks in Russia. By that, we hit banks that are systemically critical to the Russian financial system and Putin’s ability to wage destruction," she said.

"This will solidify the complete isolation of the Russian financial sector from the global system," she added.

The lender, which exited almost all its European markets in March, has previously said other rounds of sanctions would not have a significant impact on its operations.

Von der Leyen said more high-ranking Russian military officials would face EU asset freezes and travel bans, without giving names, and the EU would also ban European accountants, consultants and spin-doctors who work for Russian companies.

Von der Leyen added that those alleged to be spreading disinformation about the war in Ukraine would be targeted.

"We are banning three big Russian state-owned broadcasters from our airwaves. They will not be allowed to distribute their content anymore in the EU, in whatever shape or form be it on cable, via satellite, on the internet or via smartphone apps," she declared.

She didn’t name the broadcasters directly, but branded the television channels "as mouthpieces that amplify Putin’s lies and propaganda aggressively. We should not give them a stage anymore to spread these lies."

State-owned Russian broadcasters RTR-Planeta and R24 would be shut out of European airwaves as part of the latest sanctions, diplomats said.

Von der Leyen also proposed a recovery plan for Ukraine once the conflict ends, saying there was a need for hundreds of billions of euros in funding to rebuild the country.

"Eventually, it will pave the way for Ukraine’s future inside the European Union," von der Leyen said.