EU countries have continued to pay Vladimir Putin more than £850million per month for fossil fuels since June, a report suggests, as Donald Trump warned countries in the bloc against buying it from the Kremlin. The US President made the comments as he appeared at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at Windsor Castle, during Trump’s historic second state visit to the UK.
As the two leaders took questions on Thursday, the Republican firebrand said he was disappointed with Russia as it continues its attacks on Ukraine, with Putin appearing uninterested in working towards a peace deal to end the fighting. Asked if it was time Moscow faced sanctions, pointed to the fact that some European countries are continuing to purchase oil from Russia, and that revenues from it are key for the country’s economy, as per Ukrainian Pravda.
“Very simply, if the price of oil comes down, Putin’s going to drop out,” he told reporters. “He’s going to have no choice. He’s going to drop out of that war.”
Trump also noted that he has warned India and China against continuing to purchase Russian oil, and that boosted domestic production in the US could help to bring down prices internationally.
The EU has repeatedly vowed to keep up economic pressure on Moscow since the start of the Russian President’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But according to a report from Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) the five largest EU importers of Russian fossil fuels (Hungary, Slovakia, France, Netherlands, Belgium) paid Moscow a combined 979million euros (around £851.5m) for the non-renewable energy sources in August alone.
The monthly study, which tracks Russian fossil fuel exports and sanctions, found that natural gas which isn’t sanctioned by the bloc, accounted “for more than 61% of these imports”, and were delivered “mainly by pipeline or as liquefied natural gas (LNG)”.
“The remainder was largely crude oil, which continues to flow to Hungary and Slovakia through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline under an EU exemption,” the report added.
The month before, the five countries paid 1.2billion euros (£1billion), according to the report. In July, the top five EU importers included Spain rather than Netherlands, spending 1.1billion euros (£956,000).
The bloc was the fourth-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels, representing 8%, or EUR 1.2billion (£1billion) of Russia’s export revenues from the top five importers, the report, which cites Kpler, Marine Traffic, ENTSOG, and customs data states.
However, though many EU countries still rely on Russian supplies, the bloc’s decision to boycott most Russian seaborne oil from January 2023 led to a massive shift in crude flows from Europe to Asia.
China, India and Turkey are the biggest recipients of oil that used to go to the European Union, the Associated Press reported in early August.
Last weekend Mr Trump said he believes the Russia-Ukraine war would end if all NATO countries stopped buying oil from Russia and placed tariffs on China of 50% to 100% for its purchases of Russian petroleum.