America News Agency

According to estimates by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), the EU has purchased Russian oil and gas worth €21.9 billion.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, this amount is one-sixth higher than the €18.7 billion allocated by the EU in 2024 as financial aid to Ukraine.

Crea analyst and co-author of the report, Vaibhav Raghunandan, stated: "Buying Russian fossil fuels is essentially sending financial aid to the Kremlin and enabling its invasion. This practice must be stopped immediately to secure Ukraine's future and Europe's energy security."

Researchers compiled trade data to estimate the value of Russian fuels sold worldwide in the third year of the invasion. Based on January imports, they forecast data for February 2025, which is not yet available.

In 2024, the EU spent 39% more on Russian fossil fuel imports than it allocated to Ukraine. This figure does not include military or humanitarian contributions.

Christoph Trebesch, an economist at the Kiel Institute, who was not part of the analysis, noted that there is a striking gap between the amount of aid mobilized for Ukraine and past wars. European donors are spending less than 0.1% of their GDP annually on aid.

Christoph Trebesch added: "Many countries were more generous in past conflicts. For example, Germany mobilized far more and much faster for the liberation of Kuwait in 1990/91 than it is now doing for Ukraine."