EU's continued reliance on Russian fossil fuels highlights slow energy transition amid Ukraine conflict

European Union countries bought €1.5 billion worth of fossil fuels from Russia in July, according to the energy research group CREA, even as the bloc’s wider effort to cut reliance on Moscow’s energy has gathered pace since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

CREA said the EU remained Russia’s biggest purchaser of liquefied natural gas and pipeline gas last month, placing the bloc fourth overall among buyers of Russian fossil fuels after China, India and Turkey. France,...

Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands were the largest importers of Russian LNG, with smaller volumes also reaching Portugal and Italy.

The figures underline the uneven progress of Europe’s energy disengagement from Russia. The EU has banned Russian coal and most seaborne oil imports, but restrictions on gas have moved more slowly. A separate report from the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators says the bloc is now working towards a phased end to Russian gas imports under the REPowerEU framework, with a complete ban targeted for November 2027.

CREA said Russia’s fossil fuel export revenues fell 12% in July from the previous month, averaging €683 million a day.

Elsewhere, Latvian security services detained three Latvian citizens over a suspected arson attack on a building used by Estonian defence company Milrem Robotics in Tallinn, according to Delfi and other regional media. The fire broke out in the Lasnamäe district on 15 August and was described by investigators as deliberate and pre-planned. Estonian authorities are also examining whether the case may amount to sabotage, with Prime Minister Kristen Michal raising the possibility of a Russian link. Milrem Robotics said the incident did not disrupt production or deliveries.

The war’s human toll also rose sharply after a large Russian air assault on Kyiv, where at least 17 people were killed and more than 40 wounded, Reuters reported. Ukrainian officials said Russia fired 168 drones and dozens of cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles in an attack lasting nearly nine hours, damaging apartment blocks, a hospital, a school and food storage facilities. Kyiv declared Friday a day of mourning.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said failures by allies to supply air defence missiles were costing lives, and Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would urgently seek to provide Ukraine with more air defence capability. During the strike, drones also fell in Romanian and Moldovan territory, while Ukraine carried out attacks on oil refineries and terminals in Tatarstan and Krasnodar.

The assault also hit Ukraine’s food supply chain. Ukrainska Pravda said a warehouse used by the Fora supermarket chain in the Kyiv region was destroyed, just days after it had been brought into service to replace logistics capacity lost in an earlier Russian strike. The company estimated losses at more than 100 million hryvnias, about €2 million, and is now rerouting supplies to keep stores stocked. The New York Times has reported that repeated attacks on warehouses and distribution centres are beginning to affect the availability of goods in Kyiv shops.

At the front, Meduza said both Russian and Ukrainian forces have increasingly adopted small-unit infiltration tactics that blur front lines and make territorial control unstable across several sectors, including areas near Kramatorsk, Dobropillia, Zaporizhzhia, Vovchansk and Kupiansk. According to the outlet, these shifts have made roads, villages and even built-up areas change hands repeatedly, with drone warfare now central to countering incursions.

Poland also scrambled military aircraft and placed air defence systems on alert after the overnight strikes on Ukraine, saying the measures were precautionary and intended to protect its airspace near the border.

Source: Noah Wire Services