From 2022 to 2025, France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands purchased 34.3 billion euros worth of liquefied natural gas from Russia. During the same period, Ukraine received a total of 21.2 billion euros in aid from them. This is reported by UNN with reference to Greenpeace.
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On September 30, Greenpeace published a study titled "The LNG Trap. Europe's Dependence on Russia and the United States for Fossil Fuels." In the document, the authors note that France, Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands continued to import Russian "blue gold" from February 24, 2022, until June 2025.
They paid Moscow more for the gas received than they collectively spent on aid to Kyiv. As stated in the document, Russia received 34.3 billion euros from the named countries. During the same period, aid to Ukraine totaled 21.2 billion euros.
The authors of the study noted that the reduction in pipeline gas supplies led to EU member states continuing to increase imports of Russian liquefied gas on tankers to this day, despite their own efforts.
The trade is handled by energy companies with global names whose headquarters are in Europe - TotalEnergies, Shell, Naturgy, and SEFE. From the Russian side, the main supplier of LNG to Europe is the Yamal LNG company. According to Greenpeace, from 2022 to 2024, its revenue from fuel sales amounted to 40 billion dollars. Yamal LNG paid approximately 9.5 billion dollars in taxes to the Russian budget.
With this money, Russia could theoretically finance the production of nine and a half million 152 mm artillery shells, or 271 thousand Shahed drones, or 2686 T-90M main battle tanks.
The authors of the study emphasize that gas supplies from Russia to Europe will not stop in the coming years. This is despite the ban on imports of Russian liquefied gas to the EU, which will come into force in January 2027, and a complete ban on transactions with Rosneft and Gazpromneft, provided for by the 19th package of EU anti-war sanctions against Russia.
The European Commission has long expressed its intention to abandon Russian "blue fuel." However, the likely date for such a step in Brussels was still recently called the end of 2027. The deadlines were shifted due to pressure on the EU from Donald Trump, who accused European countries of "financing Russia's war" against Ukraine.
However, according to Greenpeace, abandoning Russian energy resources threatens the European Union with a similar dependence on the United States. In the first half of 2025 alone, 52.7 billion cubic meters of LNG were imported into the EU from the United States.