Since Russia renewed its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian exports of hydrocarbons have nearly doubled, the Finnish Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA) found on April 27.
The Helsinki-based analytic center said Russia exported about 62 billion euros worth of oil, gas and coal in two months.
Kyiv officials and Washington-based lender International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said Ukraine needs about $5 billion a month to sustain its war-torn economy due to the unjustified war waged by Russia.
Seventy-one percent of Russia’s energy exports were bought by European Union (EU) countries. Notably, Germany is the largest importer having imported 9.1 billion euros worth of Russian energy over the course of two months, CREA said.
“Crude oil supplies from Russia to foreign ports fell by 30 percent in the first three weeks of April,” the think tank said. “However, due to high oil and gas prices, Russia’s revenues have risen even while sanctions and export restrictions are hurting Russia’s economy.”
Some EU countries as well as Britain have begun to phase the use of Russian fossil fuels and implemented policies to stop importing certain sources of energy by the end of 2022.
“Deliveries of coal and LNG outside the EU increased by 30 percent and 80 percent, respectively,” the Finnish think tank said.
Kyiv has called for a blanket embargo of Russian hydrocarbon exports from which more than one-third of the country’s revenues are derived, fueling its war machine and filling its state coffers.
The World Bank estimates that Ukraine’s economy will contract by 45 percent in 2022 due to Russia’s renewed invasion.
In late February, Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin launched an all-out onslaught on the neighboring country from Belarus, mainland Russia, occupied Crimea and the easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed in the war, already in its ninth year. The conflict started in 2014 when Putin ordered troops to forcibly seize Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and occupy parts of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
A quarter of the nation’s population of 40 million-44 million people have been displaced, with more than 5 million having fled the country, according to data provided by the United Nations.
It is the biggest war on the European continent since World War II.
