Emmanuel Macron ‘betrays Ukraine’ as French imports of Russian gas soar

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of betraying Ukraine after figures showed that French imports of Russian gas rose during the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia made €93 billion (£80 billion) in fossil fuel exports during the first 100 days of the war, according to a report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea), an independent research organisation based in Finland.

The EU in total accounted for 61 per cent of Russia’s total fossil fuel exports, worth about €57 billion (£49 billion), even as the bloc moved to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

France, Belgium and the Netherlands had snapped up shipments of the Kremlin’s fossil fuels at discounted prices after other buyers cut back their purchases during the conflict, Crea said.

While Russian missiles and bombs were raining down on Ukraine in April and May, France received 12 shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other fossil fuel products worth almost €900 million (£773 million), the report showed.

Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at Crea, told The Telegraph: “France and Belgium stand out as buyers of Russian LNG on the spot market. As the EU is considering stricter sanctions against Russia, France has increased its imports to become the largest buyer of LNG in the world.

“We estimate an 18 per cent increase from February-March to May, seasonally adjusted.”

Since most of these are spot purchases rather than long-term contracts, Mr Myllyvirta said, Paris is consciously deciding to use Russian energy in the wake of Moscow’s invasion.

France’s energy ministry did not immediately respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment.

Dmytro Natalukha, the head of the Ukrainian parliament’s economic affairs committee, told The Telegraph: “The simple answer is, of course, this is not a way we consider how our allies should behave themselves.

“Those are actions that contradict the words, and provides a whole different context on the calls of the French president [Emmanuel Macron]. Given these statistics, it gives you some doubt over his real willingness to end this conflict in the best interests of Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Monday that Kyiv needs about 10 times more weapons from the West or it will suffer a crushing defeat in Ukraine’s east.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, published a list of what Ukraine requires, including 1,000 howitzers and 300 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). Just seven MLRS have been pledged by the UK and US together so far.

Countries in central and Eastern Europe that have been arming Ukraine will soon no longer have anything to offer to Kyiv.

Edgars Rinkevics, the foreign minister of Latvia, told The Telegraph that Eastern Europe had now largely run out of Soviet-made tanks and weapons to send to Ukraine, and that Western Europe needed to step up production to meet the threat from Russia.

On Monday, Michael Kofman, the director of Russia studies at the CNA, a Washington-based research group, described ongoing fighting in the Donbas as “one of the most dangerous battlefield periods for war for Ukraine”.

“There’s a real challenge for Ukraine because they’re outmatched in terms of firepower if you look at artillery… and if you look at airpower,” he said in a piece for the War on the Rocks website.

In its daily briefing, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said that it expected river crossing operations around the eastern city of Severodonetsk to be among the crucial moments in the course of the ongoing war.

“To achieve success in the current operational phase of its Donbas offensive, Russia is either going to have to complete ambitious flanking actions, or conduct assault river crossings,” the report said, pointing to the “key, 90km-long central sector” of Russia’s front line on the west side of the Siverskyi Donets River.