The vast majority of European countries in 2022-2024, before President Donald Trump returned to the US presidency in January 2025, bought much more oil and gas from Russia than they provided support to Ukraine, said US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
“I knew that many of these countries had tied their energy fortunes to Russia, but I had no idea of the scale of this or how much (collectively) it overshadowed their aid to Ukraine,” he wrote on social media on Saturday.
Landau illustrated his post with a chart provided to him by the US State Department. He specified that he had requested this data in connection with his trip this week to a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, replacing Secretary of State Marco Rubio. After the meeting, Landau sharply criticized the EU countries.
According to the chart, only five of the 24 European countries provided Ukraine with financial assistance (grants and loans) that exceeded Russia’s payments for oil and gas: the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland. In the case of Switzerland, there are no oil and gas payments to Russia, while in the case of the Scandinavian countries, they are small – up to $1 billion, with aid to Ukraine ranging from $5 billion to $10 billion (here and below are approximate figures, as the chart does not contain exact data). Overall, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ranked 3rd, 6th, and 8th, respectively, in terms of aid to Ukraine among the 24 countries listed.
And even in the case of the UK, which paid Russia about $3.5 billion for hydrocarbons, this is still much less than the aid provided to Ukraine, which is estimated at $15 billion — the second highest figure among the 24 countries.
Finland’s aid to Ukraine and purchases of Russian oil and gas are roughly equal, while in the case of Lithuania and Latvia, oil and gas payments to Russia already exceed aid to Ukraine, according to the US State Department’s estimates. (Estonia is not included in the chart, as are other countries whose aid or hydrocarbon imports from Russia during this period were less than $1 billion.
Germany, Ukraine’s largest European donor with approximately $17.5 billion in aid, purchased $20 billion worth of Russian oil and gas in 2022-2024. The Netherlands, which ranks fourth on the list of aid with approximately $8.5 billion, imported nearly $5 billion worth of hydrocarbons from Russia.
In France, this ratio is approximately $6 billion against more than $20 billion, in Poland $5.5 billion against $12 billion, and in Italy $3 billion against $27.5 billion: this is the 10th indicator in terms of aid to Ukraine and the 2nd in terms of imports from Russia.
The absolute record holder in this regard is Turkey, whose financial support to Ukraine is difficult to estimate even at $0.2 billion, while purchases of Russian oil and gas amount to about $32 billion.
Hungary, with even smaller amounts of aid, sent Russia about $22 billion for oil and gas, and Slovakia sent about $18 billion, although its support for Ukraine can be estimated at approximately $1.5 billion.
The Czech Republic’s financial assistance to Ukraine in 2022-2024 is about $1 billion, according to the US State Department’s estimates, which is also much less than the volume of Russian hydrocarbon purchases, which amounted to about $15 billion. Spain looks better in terms of these indicators
— $2 billion versus $12 billion — as does Bulgaria — $0.5 billion versus $9 billion.
The Cabinet of Ministers published Resolution No. 1596 of December 3, “Issues of Management of Certain Business Entities,” which, as previously reported by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, initiated the immediate termination of the powers of a significant part of the supervisory boards of key state-owned energy companies.
According to the document, the government expects the Ministry of Energy and the State Property Fund to terminate the powers of the members of the supervisory board of LLC “Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine” (OGTSU) Vitaliy Zubriy and Ruslan Strilets, JSC “Energy Company of Ukraine” – Oksana Osmachko and Oleksandr Muzhel, and JSC “Market Operator” Olena Kovalchuk and Andriy Stepanenko.
This list also includes three members of the supervisory board of PJSC Centrenergo, Volodymyr Velychko, Andriy Hota, and Serhiy Simonov, as well as five members of the supervisory board of JSC Ukrainian Distribution Networks, Yevhen Litvinov, Oleg Kantsurov, Andriy Kostrytsya, Svitlana Bilko, and Andriy Pochtaiev.
In addition, the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture has been instructed to prepare proposals for convening an extraordinary general meeting of Ukrainian Energy Machines JSC with the aim of terminating the powers of independent member of the supervisory board Andriy Tkachenko.
CABINET OF MINISTERS, CENTRENERGO, MARKET OPERATOR, SUPERVISORY BOARD, ЕКУ, ОГТСУ, УРС
According to Serbian Economist, regular rail service between Belgrade and Budapest will start on February 20: passengers will once again be able to travel between the two capitals by train without changing trains. After modernization, the line is designed for train speeds of up to 160 km/h, which significantly reduces travel time and makes the train competitive with road transport.
In fact, this is not only about the “return of the train” between the two capitals, but also about Serbia’s inclusion in the wider Central Europe-Balkans-Aegean Sea transport corridor. Belgrade is gaining a stronger role as a transit hub for freight and passenger flows, and the route is becoming more attractive for logistics and industrial projects.
https://t.me/relocationrs/1894
Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine has caused unprecedented destruction of the natural environment, destruction of ecosystems, and large-scale pollution of the air, soil, and water resources. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the amount of damage caused to the environment has reached 6.01 trillion hryvnia, according to the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, citing data from the State Environmental Inspection.
“These are the largest environmental losses recorded in Europe in modern history,” the Ministry of Economy emphasized.
According to the State Environmental Inspection’s estimates, the total amount of damage includes UAH 1.29 trillion in damage to soil, UAH 967 billion in damage to atmospheric air, UAH 117.8 billion in pollution and contamination of water resources, and UAH 3.63 trillion in destruction of nature reserve areas.
One of the most destructive incidents was the fires at oil depots, according to the State Environmental Inspection. For example, after a strike on an oil depot in the village of Kryachky in the Kyiv region, toxic emissions into the atmosphere reached more than 41,000 tons, and soil pollution exceeded permissible limits by 17 times. Similar incidents occurred in Chernihiv, Sumy region, Rubizhne, and Severodonetsk, where Russian missiles hit tanks containing ammonia and nitric acid, causing dangerous chemical emissions.
The destruction of hydraulic structures also has long-term consequences, the agency emphasized. The blowing up of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam in 2023 caused a large-scale ecological and hydrological collapse in southern Ukraine and the Black Sea region. Natural complexes were destroyed, hydrology was altered, and protected areas were affected. The destruction of the Oskil Reservoir dam had similar consequences, with 76% of the water volume lost and the aquatic ecosystem destroyed.
In total, 20% of Ukraine’s nature conservation areas were affected by the war, including 2.9 million hectares of the Emerald Network. Significant damage was done to the Kinburn Spit, Oleshky Sands, Kakhovka Reservoir, Lower Dnipro, dozens of Ramsar sites, and other valuable ecosystems. Several national parks and reserves remain under occupation, including Askania-Nova and the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve.
The State Environmental Inspection has highlighted problems with Ukrainian soils. Explosions, fires, and chemicals are changing their structure, reducing fertility, and causing heavy metals and toxic compounds to accumulate. The soil contains elevated levels of copper, lead, nickel, combustion products, sulfur and nitrogen compounds. This affects the quality of agricultural products, human health, and ecosystem restoration.
Ukraine is not the only country experiencing the environmental consequences of the war. There has been a documented cross-border impact: as a result of Russian strikes, approximately 3 million tons of harmful substances have been released into the atmosphere and spread across neighboring European countries. Large-scale fires—on oil products, critical infrastructure, and forests—have caused millions of additional tons of toxic emissions.
“At the end of 2024, the environmental damage from the full-scale war amounted to 2.78 trillion hryvnia, and today it already exceeds 6 trillion. Unfortunately, this figure continues to grow every day, as does the scale of destruction of Ukrainian nature. The environmental damage caused by Russia is measured not only in trillions of hryvnias — decades are needed to restore the destroyed ecosystems. And the scale of environmental destruction will go far beyond Ukraine,” said Deputy Minister of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture Ihor Zubovych.
The Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture stated that UAH 6.01 trillion is only the confirmed losses in territories controlled by Ukraine. The final scale of environmental damage will be known after complete de-occupation and the possibility of conducting a full investigation.
Sales of new commercial vehicles (trucks and special vehicles) in Ukraine in November 2025 decreased by 10% compared to the same month in 2024, to 982 units, which is also 18% less than in October 2025, according to UkrAvtoprom on its Telegram channel.
The leader in this market in November was MAN with sales of 118 vehicles, which ranked fourth in November last year and October this year (89 and 90 units, respectively), followed by last year’s leader Renault with 117 units. (233 units last year), and FIAT came in third with 88 units, which ranked 11th last November with 42 vehicles.
Next in the ranking are Citroen with 85 units (in November 2024, it was in second place with 143 cars) and Mercedes-Benz with 79 units (last year, it had 100 cars and was in third place).
According to UkrAvtoprom, a total of 10,835 new vehicles were added to the Ukrainian fleet of trucks and special-purpose vehicles in January-November, which is 6% less than in the same period last year.
As reported, in 2024, according to UkrAvtoprom, 12,900 new commercial vehicles were registered in Ukraine, which is 14% more than in 2023.
Internal and external debt of Ukraine in 2011-2025
Source: Open4Business.com.ua
