How the West is ‘fuelling’ Putin’s war in Ukraine by spending billions on Russian oil and gas

By CHRIS POLLARD

Published: 00:14 BST, 31 May 2025 | Updated: 00:20 BST, 31 May 2025

The West is helping fund Russia’s war in Ukraine by spending billions more on importing oil and gas than Kyiv has received in military aid, analysis suggests.

Vladimir Putin’s regime is still raking in huge profits from its hydrocarbon exports to the EU – even as its brutal assault on Ukraine enters a fourth year.

Despite sweeping sanctions, data shows European countries have handed Moscow three times as much cash for fossil fuels than they have given Kyiv in aid since 2022.

Overall, the Kremlin has received receipts of nearly £700billion in the three years since Februry 2022, while aid to Ukraine has been around £230billion over the same period.

Of the £192billion Russia has received from sanctioning countries, £176billion has come from the European Union.

The shocking statistics, from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), reveal that Russia’s energy profits have barely dipped since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Experts say the income is key to fuelling Russia’s war machine.

Mai Rosner, of pressure group Global Witness, said many Western politicians are more concerned about higher fuel prices than stopping Russian imports.

Vladimir Putin’s regime is still raking in huge profits from its hydrocarbon exports to the EU – even as its brutal assault on Ukraine enters a fourth year

Ukrainian firefighters operating on burning houses following Russian strike in Kyiv region

Oil Tanker belonging to the Russian company Rosneft sails in the Baltic Sea in the Leningrad region, Russia

‘There’s no real desire in many governments to actually limit Russia’s ability to produce and sell oil,’ she told the BBC.

‘There is way too much fear about what that would mean for global energy markets. There’s a line drawn under where energy markets would be too undermined or too thrown off kilter.’

Russia supplied 19 per cent of the EU’s gas imports last year, including via the TurkStream pipeline supplying Hungary and Slovakia.

Sanctions would be the easiest way for the EU to ban Russian gas altogether, but they require unanimous approval from all 27 EU nations.

The EU’s foreign affairs and security policy chief Kaja Kallas has said Russian oil and gas has escaped the worst sanctions after fears mounted in Europe of an escalation of the war and because exporting the fuel is ‘cheaper in the short term’.

In June, European chiefs plan to propose alternative measures for reducing the block’s reliance on Russian fuel that can be approved by a majority of countries.

All members except Hungary and Slovakia have previously welcomed the plan, according to EU diplomats – though some have raised concerns about the impact on energy prices.

Surging volumes of gas continue to flow into Europe through Turkey. In the first two months of 2025 alone, gas deliveries via Turkey soared nearly 27 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire in a trolleybus depot following a drone strike in Kharkiv

Meanwhile, Russian oil ends up in the West after being processed in third countries. The CREA says it has identified three ‘laundromat refineries’ in Turkey and three in India processing Russian crude and selling the fuel to sanctioning countries.

It says they have used more than £5billion worth of Russian oil to make products for sanctioning countries.

Vaibhav Raghunandan, an analyst at CREA, said: ‘[These countries] know that sanctioning countries are willing to accept this. This is a loophole. It’s entirely legal. Everyone’s aware of it, but nobody is doing much to actually tackle it in a big way.’

India’s petroleum ministry dismissed the claim as a ‘misleading and deceptive effort to tarnish India’s image’.

It said in statement: ‘As a sovereign country, India is free to import or export goods and commodities within the terms of international law and calling its legitimate business a ‘laundromat’ implies an illegal activity to which India strongly objects.

‘India meets its energy requirements through imports from multiple countries including Russia. India has never shied away from this fact nor is it apologetic about it.’

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How the West is ‘fuelling’ Putin’s war in Ukraine by spending billions on Russian oil and gas

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