India has imported crude oil worth about 144 billion euros from Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war. European research institute CERA gave this information on Tuesday. According to a report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CERA), Russia has earned a total income of about 1,000 billion euros from global oil sales since February 2022.
During this period, India has been the second largest buyer of Russian oil after China. China has purchased Russian oil worth 210.3 billion euros, coal worth 42.7 billion euros and gas worth 40.6 billion euros since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022. From the beginning of the war to January 3, 2026, China’s total energy purchases from Russia have been 293.7 billion euros.
Russia bought fossil fuels worth billions of euros
According to CERA, India has purchased fossil fuels worth 162.5 billion euros from Russia during this period. These include oil worth 143.88 billion euros and coal worth 18.18 billion euros. At the same time, the European Union spent 218.1 billion euros on buying fossil fuels from Russia. Of this, 106.3 billion euros were spent on oil, 3.5 billion euros on coal and 108.2 billion euros on gas.
CERA said, ‘Russia has earned more than 1,000 billion euros by January 2026 from the global sale of fossil fuels since the attack on Ukraine began on February 24, 2022 and is being used in the Ukraine war.’
G-7 imposed sanctions on Russia
Angered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the G-7 group (America, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy, France and Germany) and the European Union imposed sanctions and export controls against Russia.
However, these sanctions are not under any resolution of the United Nations Security Council. Many countries including China, India, Iran, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel and Saudi Arabia do not support unilateral sanctions against Russia. NATO member Turkey and Serbia, which is trying to join the European Union, have also refused to accept the sanctions.
CREA said Russian oil continues to flow into the EU, mainly to Hungary and Slovakia. Sanctions countries continue to boost Russia’s revenues by allowing imports of refined products from Russian crude.
What other information is given in the report?
The EU has seen a steady decline in fossil fuel imports from Russia since the embargo on Russian crude oil in December 2022 and Russian refined products in February 2023, the report said. By September 2025, only two EU countries… Hungary and Slovakia… will continue to import Russian oil. Russian gas is still not under the embargo.
With Western countries distancing themselves from Russia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India, the world’s third largest oil importer, has emerged as the largest buyer of discounted Russian crude. India, traditionally dependent on West Asian countries for oil, increased its imports due to the availability of Russian oil at discounted rates due to sanctions and reduced European demand. Due to this, its share in the total import of crude oil increased from one percent to about 40 percent.
Before the new sanctions imposed by the US on Russia’s two major oil exporters, Rosneft and Lukuoil, Russia supplied about 35 percent of the total crude oil imported by India. These restrictions came into effect from November 22, 2025. Since then, Russia’s share in Indian oil purchases has come down to less than 25 percent.
