Has Europe spent more on Russian oil and gas than aid to Ukraine, as Trump claims?

US President Donald Trump told Congress on Tuesday that “Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine - by far.”

It’s not the first time Trump accuses Europe of feeding Mosocw’s economy through fossil fuel purchases, and of not spending enough to bolster Kyiv's defences.

The US President has also repeatedly miscited the amount of financial assistance the US has provided to Ukraine since the start of the invasion, claiming it dwarfs Europe's contributions.

We verified Trump's claim Europe spends more on Russian energy than on support to Ukraine against the latest publicly available data.

The accuracy of his claims changes depending on whether we take it to refer the financial assistance provided to Kyiv by the European Union (EU) and its 27 member states, or by Europe as a whole.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has slapped a raft of sanctions targeting energy products in a bid to squeeze Russia’s economy and divest from Russian oil and gas, on which several EU countries were heavily reliant before the war.

The sanctions include all-out embargoes on the import of coal and seaborne oil.

But those measures did not affect shipments of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) until the war entered its third year. EU countries are still allowed to purchase Russian LNG but are now prohibited from re-exporting it to other countries.

EU members Belgium, France and Spain continue to be major entry points for Russian LNG.

Moscow has also been able to evade sanctions on oil imports through its so called shadow fleet of aging, poorly maintained tankers operated by companies that can be traced back to the Kremlin.

Research by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean