The EU bought a total of £20 billion worth of Russian gas despite Vladimir Putin’s continued invasion of Ukraine, research has found.
Data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) broke down which countries are purchasing Russian fossil fuels and in what quantities.
The statistics show that the EU is still Russia’s biggest customer for gas exports despite Moscow’s brutal war in Ukraine.
CREA found that the EU accounted for 36 percent of Russia’s global monthly liquified natural gas exports (LNG), worth just under £400 million a day.
Graphs showed that, since the EU oil bans were placed on Russia, the bloc has purchased £9 billion worth of LNG and £11 billion in pipeline gas.
This means the EU purchased 50 percent of Russia’s LNG exports, with China the second biggest customer at 21 percent.
The EU also purchased 40 percent of Russia’s pipeline gas, followed by China with 28 percent.
Overall, the EU was Russia’s fourth biggest customer for fossil fuels as a whole in August, behind China, India, and NATO ally Turkey.
Another graph showed the five EU countries that handed Russia £1 billion worth of fossil fuels in August alone.
Hungary was Russia’s biggest customer in Europe, purchasing just under £400million worth. They were followed by France (£182million), Slovakia (£159million), Austria (£147million) and Italy (£145million).
In the second quarter of 2024, the EU imported more gas from Russia than the US did, returning to a status quo that existed before the war in Ukraine.
Ville Niinistö, a green Finnish MEP, has been especially vocal on the subject. He said that the continued purchasing of Russian gas “equals supporting the Russian war economy and its war on Ukraine.”
He told Euractiv: “We must continue to push for a total ban of Russian gas to EU markets and to limit its markets elsewhere globally as much as possible.”
EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said earlier this month that the EU is still committed to completely phasing out Russian gas.
She added that the EU has already reduced gas imports from Russia, meaning “the volumes that some companies are still receiving from Russia do not allow [it] to blackmail us anymore – there are alternatives available.”
Last month, the Daily Express spoke to Ukrainian refugees who raged at the EU for continuing to import Russian gas.
Volodymyr Pelesha, Ukrainian in Germany, said: “I think Europe and the rest of the world need not to depend on Russian energy resources.
“All of that is just funding their fight in their war.”
