A return to buying more of Moscow’s fossil fuels would be a mistake, EU countries bordering Russia told POLITICO.
BRUSSELS — Any talk of returning to Russian oil and gas is premature and threatens Europe’s security interests, European Union countries bordering Russia warned Monday as speculation grows that a United States-brokered peace deal could normalize economic ties with Moscow.
The remarks come as speculation mounts over when — or if — Europe might reopen the energy taps with Russia. In recent days, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Ukraine’s top sanctions official have both suggested economic relations with the Kremlin could thaw after hostilities eventually end in Ukraine.
That has sparked a push from Kyiv’s most ardent EU allies to ensure that any thaw in relations doesn’t compromise on Russian fossil fuels. They spoke out Monday as both energy and foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, as well as the bloc’s energy security.
“Russian energy is poisonous,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys told POLITICO. “It comes with political manipulation and blackmail. The revenues of its sales go directly to funding Russia’s brutalities in Ukraine, but also to various sabotage and disinformation campaigns in our countries.”
He added: “I believe that Europe has learned its lessons and won’t walk back into the trap of reliance on Russian energy resources. It is in our fundamental interest to make sure this does not happen.”
The European Commission, the EU’s executive, insists that returning to business as usual with Moscow is not currently in the cards. “There’s no change in the EU’s policy toward Russia when it comes to energy,” EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen said Monday.
“We want to be independent of energy imports from Russia,” he told reporters after the energy ministers’ gathering.
But EU countries on Russia’s border argued that independence must continue even after the war.
“Self-sufficiency in the energy sector, as any other sector, is critical for Europe in the future,” Finland’s Climate Minister Sari Multala told POLITICO.
“It’s not the time to discuss letting sanctions go or helping the situation for Russia in any way,” Multala said. “That would not strengthen Ukraine’s position in [any] peace negotiations.”
Estonian Climate Minister Yoko Alender similarly rejected claims that European countries could return to buying oil and gas from Moscow as part of a peace deal.
“I, at the moment, don’t see any signs that Russia has changed any of its aims, so I think definitely Europe instead needs to go away from Russian fossil fuels,” she said. “Estonia is not buying any energy from Russia and we see that Europe needs to really be decisive and unified on this and as a whole stop this practice.”
Germany’s outgoing vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, was slightly more equivocal. He hit out at calls to resume Russian oil imports as “the wrong direction” and said it was unwise to buy Russian fuel “as long as this horrible war is going on.”
Yet Habeck — whose country was hit hard by price rises when the Kremlin cut gas exports after launching the war — was less declarative about what might happen after the war.
“Russia misused our energy dependency,” he said, but ultimately Ukraine should be allowed to “define a way how peace can be secured again.”
The debates come several days after Ukraine’s top sanctions official, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, told POLITICO he believed a return to Western countries doing business with Moscow was just “a matter of time,” but only once peace is established and guaranteed.
According to him, existing restrictions on the country’s energy exports had to be seen as “leverage” in exchange for concrete action on security and justice, such as compensation for Ukraine.
But he cautioned Europe against becoming dependent again on Russian resources.
“Russia has a lot of potential, especially energy resources,” he said, hinting third countries could try to harness them again. “Maybe not, and hopefully not, to the same extent — hopefully not ever finding themselves in the position of total dependence on Russian energy of any kind.”
Speaking later on Monday, Vlasiuk added that sanctions were worth keeping in place while Russia remains a serious threat to the continent. “Another way to look at it is that energy sanctions provide Europe with more time to reduce dependencies on Russia and facilitate long-term deterrence, strengthening Europe’s ability to protect itself and values.”
At the same time, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would hold talks over the phone with Trump on Tuesday. He declined to comment on the agenda.
The EU has indefinitely shelved a long-awaited strategy to end its remaining imports of Russian oil, gas and nuclear technology, as the bloc adopts a wait-and-see approach to peace talks in Ukraine. Still, Jørgensen on Monday insisted he would present the plan “quite soon.”
“We are really concerned about possible lifting [of] energy sanctions on Russia,” said Svitlana Romanko, director of Ukrainian advocacy organization Razom We Stand. “Lifting of those sanctions now would be like giving a pyromaniac matches and expecting them not to start fires.”
