More than 4 years after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the European Union (EU) has sharply reduced gas imports from Russia.
According to European Council data, Russia once supplied about 40% of the EU's gas demand before 2022, but this rate has now decreased significantly thanks to increased imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, Norway and North Africa.
However, the level of dependence on Russian gas between EU member states is still largely different, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
Hungary is currently still in the group of countries most dependent on Russian gas in the EU. According to Reuters, Budapest imported about 7.5-8 billion m3 of Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline in 2025, nearly reaching the maximum capacity of this pipeline. Data released by Russia shows that the amount of gas supplied to Hungary in 2024 reached about 8.6 billion m3.
Slovakia is also one of the EU countries that is still significantly dependent on Russian gas. According to the Slovak Ministry of Economy, about 33% of the country's largest gas supplier in 2025 still comes from Russia through Gazprom and the TurkStream pipeline. Bratislava currently maintains its gas import contract with Russia until 2034 and believes that ending the supply too quickly could have a major impact on the economy and energy security.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico recently said that many EU countries are signaling that they may participate in a lawsuit against the EU's ban on Russian gas imports.
In addition to Hungary and Slovakia, Austria was once one of Russia's largest gas customers in Europe. According to the Vienna Institute for International Economics (wiiw), at one point in 2024, more than 80% of Austria's gas imports came from Russia. Although Vienna has made efforts to diversify its supply in recent years, analysts believe that the country's economy is still significantly affected by price fluctuations and Russian energy supplies.
Meanwhile, many Western European countries such as Germany, France or the Netherlands have reduced dependence faster thanks to expanding LNG infrastructure and increasing imports from other partners.
However, recent data shows that Russian LNG continues to be imported into some EU countries such as France, Belgium and Spain. Analysts believe that this uneven dependence is causing the EU to continue to face many internal debates related to energy policy and the roadmap to end Russian gas imports in the coming years.
