The West continues to finance Russia’s war against Ukraine through oil sales

The West is helping Russia finance the war against Ukraine – BBC study

Russia continues to earn billions from exporting fossil fuels to the West, and invests the money earned from the sale of raw materials in financing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has been going on for the fourth year. This is reported by the BBC, reports UNN.

DetailsSince the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia has earned more than three times more money from hydrocarbon exports than Ukraine has received in aid to defend against aggression, allocated by its allies.

Data analyzed by the BBC shows that Ukraine’s Western allies have paid Russia far more for its hydrocarbons than they have provided Ukraine with aid.

Oil and gas account for almost a third of Russia’s government revenue and more than 60% of its exports.

Following the invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s allies imposed sanctions on the business of selling Russian fossil fuels. The United States and the United Kingdom banned imports of Russian oil and gas, while the EU banned imports of Russian crude oil by sea, but not gas.

How much Russia earns from energy exportsDespite this, as of May 29 this year, Russia has received more than €883 billion ($973 billion) in revenue from fossil fuel exports since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, including €228 billion from countries that have imposed sanctions, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

The lion’s share of this amount, EUR 209 billion, came from EU member states.

EU countries continued to import pipeline gas directly from Russia until Ukraine stopped transit in January 2025, and Russian crude oil is still supplied via pipelines to Hungary and Slovakia.

Russian gas is still being supplied to Europe in increasing volumes via Turkey. CREA data shows that its volumes increased by 26.77% in January and February 2025, compared to the same period in 2024.

Hungary and Slovakia still receive Russian gas via Turkey.

Despite Western efforts, Russia’s fossil fuel revenues fell by only 5% in 2024 compared to 2023, while export volumes fell by 6%, CREA reports. Last year also saw an increase in Russia’s crude oil export revenues of 6% and pipeline gas revenues of 9% year-on-year.

Russian estimates suggest that gas exports to Europe increased by 20% in 2024, while exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) reached record levels. Currently, half of Russia’s LNG exports go to the EU, CREA reports.

EU foreign policy chief Kaya Kallas said that the alliance had not imposed the “strongest sanctions” on Russian oil and gas because some member states feared escalating the conflict and because their purchase of Russian energy “is cheaper in the short term.”

LNG imports were not included in the latest, 17th package of sanctions against Russia approved by the EU. But the EU has approved a roadmap to end all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027.

Russia earns many times more than the aid Ukraine receives from its alliesData show that the money Russia earns from selling fossil fuels consistently exceeds the amount of aid Ukraine receives from its allies.

The desire to secure fuel may hinder Western efforts to limit Russia’s ability to finance its war.

Senior activist at pressure group Global Witness, May Rosner, says many Western politicians fear that cutting Russian fuel imports will lead to higher energy prices.

Many governments have no real desire to limit Russia’s ability to produce and sell oil. There is too much concern about what it would mean for global energy markets. There is a limit beyond which energy markets will be undermined or too unbalanced 

Loophole in processingIn addition to direct sales, some of the oil exported by Russia enters the West after being processed into fuel in third countries through a so-called “refining loophole.” Sometimes it is also diluted with crude oil from other countries.

CREA claims to have identified three “oil laundering schemes” in Turkey and three in India that refine Russian oil and sell the resulting fuel to countries that have imposed sanctions. According to her, they used Russian oil worth EUR 6.1 billion to produce products for countries that imposed sanctions.

The Indian Ministry of Petroleum criticized the CREA report, calling it a “misleading attempt to tarnish India’s image.”

[These countries] know that the sanctioning countries and are willing to work on those terms. This is a loophole. This is perfectly legal. Everyone knows about it, but no one is doing anything to really deal with it seriously

Activists and experts argue that Western governments have the tools and means to stop the flow of oil and gas revenues into the Kremlin’s coffers.

According to former Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Vladimir Milov, who is now a staunch opponent of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, sanctions imposed on the trade of Russian hydrocarbons should be better enforced, including the oil price cap adopted by the G7 group of countries, which Milov says “does not work.”

However, he fears that reforms in the US government initiated by President Donald Trump will harm institutions such as the US Treasury or the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which are key to ensuring sanctions are enforced.

Another way to fight is to put constant pressure on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers involved in transporting Russian natural resources outside of sanctions.

This is a complex surgical operation. You need to periodically release batches of new sanctioned vessels, shell companies, traders, insurers, etc. every few weeks. This is an area where Western governments have been much more effective, especially after the introduction of new sanctions by the Joe Biden administration in January 2025.

May says banning Russian LNG exports to Europe and closing the refinery loophole in Western jurisdictions would be “important steps in ending the West’s separation from Russian hydrocarbons.”

According to Raghunandan of CREA, it would be relatively easy for the EU to abandon Russian LNG imports.

Fifty percent of their LNG exports go to the European Union, and only 5% of the EU’s total gas consumption [LNG] in 2024 was from Russia. So if the EU decides to completely stop the supply of Russian gas, it will cause Russia much more damage than consumers in the European Union

Trump’s plan for oil prices to end the warExperts interviewed by the publication dismissed the idea of ​​US President Donald Trump that the war with Ukraine would end if OPEC lowered oil prices.

People in Moscow are laughing at this idea, because the most affected will be… the American shale oil industry, the least cost-competitive oil industry in the world

Raghunandan says that the cost of crude oil production in Russia is also lower than in OPEC countries such as Saudi Arabia, so they will suffer from lower oil prices earlier than Russia.

Saudi Arabia will not agree to this in any way. They have already tried this before. This led to a conflict between Saudi Arabia and the United States

May Rosner says there are both moral and practical problems with the West buying Russian hydrocarbons while supporting Ukraine.

We now have a situation where we are financing the aggressor in a war that we condemn, and we are also financing the resistance to the war. This dependence on fossil fuels means that we are actually dependent on the whims of energy markets, global energy producers and hostile dictators