It is without doubt, that the EU and some of the EU Member States are heavily dependent on the Russian gas and oil supplies and the President Putin uses this dependency as an instrument of geopolitical pressure against Europe.

In April 2021, the European Parliament adopted the Resolution1, which has stated that in case of an invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the EU should immediately stop imports of oil and gas from Russia to the EU. The invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022, however 10 days later, on 7 March 2022, the EU was still holding silence.

We, the Members of the European Parliament, call upon the EU together with the Member States, to impose immediately the embargo on oil and gas import from Russia to the EU, until the Russian Federation fully retreats from Ukraine. Otherwise, the inaction of the EU to stop gas and oil import from Russia would only prolong the destruction by Putin’s armed forces of Ukrainian cities, infrastructure, economy and the social protection of the Ukrainian people.

We cannot wait and tolerate this to continue. While Putin is waging more and more brutal war against Ukraine, we are paying more and more for Russian gas and oil into Putin’s pockets (see infographic from Bruegel).

The longer Vladimir Putin will be able to fund his insane war against Ukraine from the revenues of gas and oil exports to Europe, the more damage Europe will bear on its shoulders for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

It is Europe, who now is bearing the costs of Putin’s tanks and artillery against Ukraine, when per day we are paying Russia for gas and oil import around of EUR 600 million. It is estimated

that one T-72 tank in Russia will cost about EUR 1.5 million and one more modern T-80 tank, respectively, EUR 3 million. This makes about 400 new T-72 tanks or 200 new T-80 tanks a day financed by the EU from its gas and oil purchases from Vladimir Putin. It is more than brave Ukrainian soldiers managed to destroy until now (285 tanks were destroyed by 6 March).

In 2020 alone, with much lower prices for gas and oil back then, the EU has paid Russia EUR 64 billion for the import of energy resources. According to "Politico", this covers the entire Russian military budget, which in 2020 amounted to EUR 62 billion2.

In addition, Europe is covering 40 percent of its coal needs with import from Russia, therefore, although the Russian coal imports make much lesser part of those European Russian energy imports, it also must be stopped.

This puts Europe in an ambiguous moral situation. After initial hesitations, the Europeans agreed to hand over weapons to Ukraine with anti-tank grenades and Stingers, but at the same time, they continued to buy the Russian gas and thus to finance new tanks for Vladimir Putin. We have to choose on which side we are.

Because of this situation, the EU has imposed SWIFT on Russia only partially. As we hear from the reports, some EU Member States’ capitals are afraid that the implementation of the total SWIFT ban on Russia will make it impossible to pay for Gazprom's gas purchases, and gas supplies from Russia will stop. Therefore, the only way out for Europe to have a total SWIFT ban on Russia, is to declare a full embargo on Russian gas and oil and to adopt necessary side measures to restore the potential energy losses in some Member States. This is

how Europe can end Putin’s war in Ukraine.

It is our moral obligation to brave people of Ukraine - to implement full embargo on the Russian oil, gas and coal import now!

Members of the European Parliament:

Andrius KUBILIUS, EPP, Lithuania
Rasa JUKNEVIČIENĖ, EPP, Lithuania
Dorien ROOKMAKER, ECR, Netherlands
Jerzy BUZEK, EPP, Poland
Roberts ZĪLE, ECR, Latvia
Tomasz FRANKOWSKI, EPP, Poland
Karin KARLSBRO, Renew, Sweden
Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ, Renew, Romania
Nikolaj VILLUMSEN, GUE/NGL, Denmark
Andrus ANSIP, Renew, Estonia
Domènec RUIZ DEVESA, S&D, Spain
Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS, Renew, Lithuania
Magdalena ADAMOWICZ, EPP, Poland
Henna VIRKKUNEN, EPP, Finland
Siegfried MUREŞAN, EPP, Romania
Ivan ŠTEFANEC, EPP, Slovakia
Juozas OLEKAS, S&D, Lithuania
Janina OCHOJSKA, EPP, Poland
Krzysztof HETMAN, EPP, Poland
Danuta Maria HÜBNER, EPP, Poland
Eugen TOMAC, EPP, Romania
Gheorghe FALCĂ, EPP, Romania
Franc BOGOVIČ, EPP, Slovenia
Bernard GUETTA, Renew, France
Raphaël GLUCKSMANN, S&D, France
Adam JARUBAS, EPP, Poland
Jaak MADISON, ID, Estona
David LEGA, EPP, Sweden
Vladimír BILČÍK, EPP, Slovakia
Aušra MALDEIKIENĖ, EPP, Lithuania
Dace MELBĀRDE, ECR, Latvia
Pierre LARROUTUROU, S&D, France
Janusz LEWANDOWSKI, EPP, Poland
Marek Paweł BALT, S&D, Poland
Patryk JAKI, ECR, Poland
Radan KANEV, EPP, Bulgaria
Łukasz KOHUT, S&D, Poland
Elżbieta KRUK, ECR, Poland
Róża THUN UND HOHENSTEIN, Renew, Poland
Alexander ALEXANDROV YORDANOV, EPP, Bulgaria
Riho TERRAS, EPP, Estonia
Anja HAZEKAMP, GUE/NGL, Netherlands
Peter POLLÁK, EPP, Slovakia
Vilija BLINKEVIČIŪTĖ, S&D, Lithuania
Liudas MAŽYLIS, EPP, Lithuania
Jan OLBRYCHT, EPP, Poland
Alexandr VONDRA, ECR, Czechia
Anna FOTYGA, ECR, Poland
Sandra KALNIETE, EPP, Latvia
Mircea-Gheorghe HAVA, EPP, Romania
Grzegorz TOBISZOWSKI, ECR, Poland
Bronis ROPĖ, Greens/EFA, Lithuania
Jacek SARYUSZ-WOLSKI, ECR, Poland
Guy VERHOFSTADT, Renew, Belgium
Zdzisław KRASNODĘBSKI, ECR, Poland
Malin BJÖRK, GUE/NGL, Sweden
Petri SARVAMAA, EPP, Finland
Manuela RIPA, Greens/EFA, Germany
Luděk NIEDERMAYER, EPP, Czechia
Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ, ECR, Czechia
Ryszard Antoni LEGUTKO, ECR, Poland
Witold Jan WASZCZYKOWSKI, ECR, Poland
Robert BIEDROŃ, S&D, Poland
Esther de LANGE, EPP, Netherlands
Eugen JURZYCA, ECR, Slovakia
Beata SZYDŁO, ECR, Poland
Włodzimierz CIMOSZEWICZ, S&D, Poland
Bartosz ARŁUKOWICZ, EPP, Poland
Tomas TOBÉ, EPP, Sweden
Andrzej HALICKI, EPP, Poland
Valdemar TOMAŠEVSKI, ECR, Lithuania
Jadwiga WIŚNIEWSKA, ECR, Poland
Inese VAIDERE, EPP, Latvia
Dominik TARCZYŃSKI, ECR, Poland
Elżbieta Katarzyna ŁUKACIJEWSKA, EPP, Poland
Vlad GHEORGHE, Renew, Romania
Urmas PAET, Renew, Estonia
Alice KUHNKE, Greens/EFA, Sweden
Jakop G. DALUNDE, Greens/EFA, Sweden
Pär HOLMGREN, Greens/EFA, Sweden
Ivars IJABS, Renew, Latvia
Milan ZVER, EPP, Slovenia
Isabel SANTOS, S&D, Portugal
Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ, EPP, Czechia
Sven MIKSER, S&D, Estonia
Arba KOKALARI, EPP, Sweden
Georgios KYRTSOS, EPP, Greece
Martina DLABAJOVÁ, Renew, Czechia
Beata MAZUREK, ECR, Poland
Dita CHARANZOVÁ, Renew, Czechia
Marian-Jean MARINESCU, EPP, Romania
Traian BĂSESCU, EPP, Romania
Hermann TERTSCH, ECR, Spain
Veronika VRECIONOVÁ, ECR, Czechia
Christophe HANSEN, EPP, Luxembourg
Ulrike MÜLLER, Renew, Germany
Jiří POSPÍŠIL, EPP, Czechiaz