Seven EU countries increase oil and LNG imports from Russia

Seven EU member states have increased their imports of Russian energy resources.

This is reported by the “League” with reference to Reuters.

Since 2022, when Russia began a full-scale war against Ukraine, the EU has reduced its dependence on energy resources from Russia by about 90%. However, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), in the first eight months of 2025, the bloc’s countries imported them for more than 11 billion euros.

Seven of the 27 EU member states increased the value of their imports compared to the previous year. For example, France increased its purchases of Russian energy resources by 40% – to 2.2 billion euros, and the Netherlands – by 72%, to 498 million euros.

The value of Russian energy imports to Hungary this year has increased by 11%, to Belgium by 3%, to Croatia by 55%, to Romania by 57%, and to Portugal by 167%.

Liquefied natural gas currently accounts for the largest share of Russian energy imports to the EU, accounting for almost half of the total value of purchases.

CREA noted that in 2021 the EU imported more than 133 billion euros of Russian oil and gas, and in January-August 2025 – 11.4 billion euros. In total, since 2022 the EU has imported more than 213 billion euros of Russian energy.

Vaibhav Raghunandan, an EU and Russia specialist at CREA, called the increase in purchases a “form of self-sabotage” by some countries, given that energy sales are Russia’s largest source of income.

USM previously reported that Greenpeace activists protested at a Belgian port over LNG imports from Russia and the United States.