The EU has reduced its dependence on Russian oil and gas by around 90 percent since 2022, shows an analysis by the news agency Reuters of data from the think tank Crea (Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air).
But so far this year, seven of the member states, including five that strongly support Ukraine in the war, have increased the value of their imports compared to 2024. For example, France increased its purchases of Russian energy by 40 percent to 2.2 billion euro and the Netherlands by 72 percent to 498 million euro.
"Self-harm behavior”, thinks Vaibhav Raghunandan, EU-Russia specialist at Crea.
The Kremlin is literally getting funding to be able to continue deploying armed forces in Ukraine, he says to Reuters.
The EU is currently discussing sanctions that mean the purchases of Russian gas will completely cease. But the stop is to be implemented first at the turn of the year 2026-2027.
