Despite Brussels’ efforts to phase out gas from Moscow, Europe spent approximately €7.88 billion on liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Arctic energy initiative in the first nine months of 2026, according to the campaign group Urgewald. The figures, which Urgewald compiled using data from the market intelligence firm Kpler, show how dependent the EU is on Russian energy. Between January and September of this year, a record of 12.18 million tonnes of Russian energy arrived at European ports.
The European Union has long sought to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, and this year it implemented several measures to achieve that goal. At the start of 2026, Brussels banned the signing of new energy contracts with Russia. Subsequently, on January 1, 2027, a complete prohibition on Russian LNG was implemented.
In the interim, the Lindsey Graham Act, which was recently announced by the Trump administration, grants the United States the authority to impose sanctions on Russian LNG deliveries to Europe prior to the EU’s import prohibition. Between January and September, the Russian Yamal project’s imports of LNG to European ports increased by 9.5% year over year. EU ports received 85% of Yamal’s recorded deliveries. Kpler reports that the Dunkirk and Montoir ports in France received 571.716 million tonnes of Arctic LNG, which accounted for nearly three-quarters of the EU’s September deliveries.
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