Four EU Countries Paid Russia More for LNG Than They Gave Ukraine in Aid, Report Says

France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands collectively paid Russia more for liquefied natural gas (LNG) than they contributed in bilateral aid to Kyiv between 2022 and June 2025, according to a new report by Greenpeace.

The report, which underscores Europe’s lingering dependence on Russian fuel, claims that while the four countries imported Russian LNG worth €34.3 billion ($40.3bn), they provided just €21.2 billion ($24.9bn) in support to Ukraine.

Greenpeace also attempts to quantify for the first time how much profit tax revenue from Yamal LNG, Russia’s primary LNG exporter to Europe and Asia, has flowed to Moscow.

Between 2022 and 2024, it estimates that Yamal LNG gained a total of $40 billion and paid an estimated $9.5 billion in profit tax into the Russian state coffers.

This revenue stream “could be used to fund the purchase of deadly armaments currently being used by Russian forces in their war of aggression against Ukraine,” the report states.

With this sum alone, the report calculates that the Russian state could have financed 9.5 million 152mm artillery shells, 271,000 Shahed-type attack drones or 2,686 T-90M battle tanks.

The report also pinpoints the European countries generating the most money in profit tax revenues for the Russian state between 2022 and 2024.

The list includes France’s TotalEnergies, contractually tied to Yamal LNG until 2041, which it says generated $2.5 billion, and Germany’s SEFE, tied until 2038, which reportedly generated $1.45 billion.

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“Rather than phasing out Russian gas, Europe has effectively locked in LNG deliveries as a replacement for lost pipeline flows,” the report claims.

It comes as European states have come under fire in recent weeks from US President Donald Trump, who has put them under pressure to phase out their “embarrassing” purchases of oil and gas from Russia, saying “they’re funding the war against themselves.”

On Sept. 18, Bloomberg reported that the EU was planning measures to speed up its phaseout of the bloc’s purchases of Russian LNG after pressure from Trump.

In its 19th package of sanctions against Russia, the European Commission said it would prioritise cutting Russia’s energy revenue, pledging to impose a ban on imports of Russian LNG into European markets while lowering the oil price cap to $47.60 per barrel.

Previously, estimates by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) found that EU member states had outspent their own financial aid donations to Kyiv by one-sixth in their purchases of Russian oil and gas in 2024.

Having spent €21.9bn ($25.7bn) on Russian oil and gas in that year, they allocated just €18.7bn ($21.9bn) to Ukraine in financial aid, according to a tracker from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Meanwhile, in May the German tabloid Bild estimated that Russia was on track to generate €20 billion ($22.7 billion) in 2025 from selling energy and raw materials to the EU.