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Russia's fossil fuel exports generated €242 billion ($253.8 billion) in revenue in the third year of its war in Ukraine, with some income coming indirectly from Western countries in spite of sanctions, according to a new report.
Why It Matters
Russia has made a total of €847 billion in fossil fuel revenue since the war began in 2022, said the report from independent research organization Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and campaign group B4Ukraine, which seeks to cut off economic support for Moscow.
The report, using data from Kpler, a global trade intelligence company that focuses on shipping markets, was shared exclusively with Newsweek.
Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin and the U.S. Department of State to comment on this story.
What To Know
The report's figures come despite Western sanctions and are in contrast to the $199.1 billion Russia is believed to have earned from fossil fuel exports in 2021, the year before its invasion of Ukraine. It is several times the $211 billion that the Pentagon estimates Moscow spent on the war from 2022 to 2024.
How long sanctions will last has been thrown into question under new U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the war in Ukraine and has taken a more lenient approach to President Vladimir Putin than his White House predecessor, Joe Biden.
Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and Western countries have worked to stop Russian oil imports since. In March 2022, Biden announced a U.S. ban on Russian oil imports into the country and in January 2025 issued sanctions to block oil projects.
However, many countries have not placed sanctions on Russia; the report said that some fuel products had made their way to the West through third-party states including China, India and Turkey.
In the third year of the war, G7 countries imported €18 billion of oil products from six refineries in India and Turkey of which €9 billion was allegedly refined from Russian crude oil, this generated an estimated €4 billion in tax revenues for Moscow.
Overall, crude oil was Russia's primary source of income, generating €104 billion in revenue. Other fossil fuels were gas, coal and liquefied natural gas.
What People Are Saying
Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Temnycky, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank's Eurasia Center, said it would weaken Russia if the United States also put pressure on the third parties.
"This would hurt the economies of these third-party countries," he said. "The third-party states may also reconsider purchasing Russian crude.
"Pursuing such policies by Western countries would result in greater restrictions on the Russian energy market. This would lead to a decline in Russian energy sales, and it would weaken the Russian economy."
The report said foreign businesses paid $60 billion in taxes to Moscow between 2022 and 2024. That included American firms in Russia, which paid $1.2 billion in profit taxes in 2023, as Newsweek first reported in January, making the U.S. the largest contributor of such taxes to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, the report claimed that Moscow has continued to import computer numerical control (CNC) machines used to make weaponry, among other products from foreign sources. China allegedly manufactured 63 percent of these supplies. Taiwan made 9 percent and South Korea made 5.5 percent of CNCs, according to the report.
About the writer
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more