The European Union spent more on Russian fossil fuels in 2024 than it provided to Ukraine in military and financial assistance, according to new data published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). First reported by Euromaidan Press on Thursday, the analysis shows that the EU paid approximately €7 billion more on Russia energy imports than it doled out to Ukraine last year.
Despite an array of sanctions and public commitments to wean off Russian oil and gas, Brussels ended up spending an estimated €46 billion on Russian energy imports last year—the bulk of it for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas, the report found.
By comparison, Ukraine received just under €39 billion in EU financial and military aid in 2024, bringing into clear focus the nature of politically charged tradeoff that unfolded beneath the surface of European energy policy.
The report comes at a moment of intensifying scrutiny, as energy security, economics and tricky geopolitics combine to leave Brussels in a state of confusion. Analysts note that while direct Russian gas pipeline volumes have declined significantly since the start of the war, European LNG imports from Russia—especially via France, Spain, and Belgium—have quietly surged, undermining official narratives of disengagement, according to CREA.
The report also comes as EU officials (prodded by the UK) on Thursday proposed to the G7 a further tightening of the Russian crude oil price cap, currently set at $60 per barrel. The suggested new threshold of $50, or even $30 per barrel ostensibly aims to further chip away at Kremlin revenues, which have fallen sharply since 2022, but remain substantial due to loopholes and shadow tanker fleets.
Ukraine has been lobbying G7 nations for the cap to be reduced to $30, and meanwhile, the UK has formally backed the initiative, with Bloomberg reporting that London sees the current cap as “ineffective in the face of Russia’s evolving export tactics”.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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