Despite official EU ban, imports of Russian Arctic LNG still surging

European imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia’s Yamal project rose sharply in the first five months of 2026, new data shows.

Between January and May, more than 8.3 million tonnes of LNG were to shipped to EU ports from Russia’s Yamal site in the Artic North.

This is a 17.9 percent increase compared with the same period last year, Kpler shipping data analysed by the German NGO Urgewald shows.

The NGO concludes that the EU sanctions regime isn’t effective. “The short-term contract ban has had no visible effect so far,” said Sebastian Rötters, a campaigner at Urgewald.

Despite the ban, which came into effect in March, almost 97 percent of the ships that left Russia’s north-west Siberian Yamal site arrived at an EU port.