Europe reports record gas purchases from Russia amid transit stoppage
The European Union (EU) is buying Russian gas in record quantities despite the recent halt of gas supplies from Russia through Ukrainian territory. This was reported by Politico newspaper on January 17.
"Data collected by Kpler, a company engaged in statistical processing of commodities, and analyzed by Politico, shows that for the first 15 days of 2025, the 27 countries of the European Union imported 837.3 thousand tons of liquefied natural gas from Russia," the material says.
At the same time last year for the same period, the EU consumed 760.1 thousand tons. According to the newspaper, this reinforces fears that Western countries are not taking sufficient measures to reduce purchases from Russia.
Meanwhile, gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS) in France and the Netherlands have already fallen below 50%, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data cited by TASS. As of January 15, the French UGS facilities were 49.24% full, while in the Netherlands the reserves dropped to 47.58%.
Since January 1, 2025 , Gazprom has stopped supplying fuel to Europe through the Ukrainian gas transportation system. The state corporation noted that this happened due to Ukraine's refusal to extend the agreements.
The Bloomberg agency reported on January 3 that gas prices in European countries on the first trading day of the year showed the maximum since 2023 amid the cessation of supplies from Russia. Prior to that, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the cessation of gas supplies from Russia via Ukraine weakens the economic potential of the EU.
On December 24, 2024, deputy director of the International Institute of Energy Policy and Diplomacy of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations Iqbal Guliyev predicted a difficult winter for the European Union in a conversation with Izvestia.
On November 6, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak pointed out that European countries are interested in the continuation of gas transit from Russia through Ukraine, and the Russian side is ready to supply energy resources. At the same time, due to Ukraine's unreliability in this area, some states found themselves in a difficult situation, he noted.
