China buys €319bn of Russian fossil fuels since war began, keeping Kremlin export earnings afloat

China buys €319bn of Russian fossil fuels since war began, keeping Kremlin export earnings afloat Beijing's discounted-barrel purchases give Moscow the hard currency to outlast Western sanctions, even as the EU pushes to choke off Russian energy revenue. China has bought more than €319 billion ($372 billion) of Russian fossil fuels since the war in Ukraine began, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air calculated, handing Moscow the hard currency it needs to keep fighting through Western sanctions.¹ For energy markets, that figure is the clearest measure of how thoroughly sanctions have been rerouted rather than enforced. Russia's discounted crude, coal and gas now flow east instead of west, and Beijing has become the buyer of last resort.¹ The dependency is one-sided. In 2024, Russia shipped roughly $129 billion of goods to China, most of it crude oil, coal and natural gas sold at steep discounts.¹ China sent back nearly $116 billion of machinery, electronics and vehicles, replacing Western suppliers that left after sanctions.¹ The financial plumbing explains why. The US, EU and allies expelled major Russian banks from SWIFT and froze about $300 billion of Russia's central bank reserves held abroad.¹ Moscow leaned on China for settlement and technology imports; Bloomberg figures cited show China supplied roughly 90% of Russia's sanctioned technology imports in 2025, up from 80% a year earlier.¹ That access is expensive. Russia routes goods through third countries and often pays premiums of nearly 90% above pre-war prices.¹ The Kremlin has accepted the trade, deep energy discounts out and inflated margins on imports in, as the price of keeping its war economy running.¹ The politics behind the flows hardened last month. EU foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas told the Economist in an interview published on Sunday (2026-05-17) that China wants the war prolonged to keep Washington's attention fixed on Europe.⁴ "It's not in their interest that this war stops, because then America's attention will turn to China," she said, recalling Chinese policy chief Wang Yi's message.⁴ The relationship was on display in Beijing, where Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping for a summit just days after a separate visit by Donald Trump, in talks over tea that officials described as an intimate meeting between old friends.² Set against the money flowing to Moscow, Western support for Kyiv looks finite. Under President Joe Biden the US sent Ukraine weapons and aid worth $48 billion, around 5% of America's annual defence budget, an outlay that helped destroy more than 1,000 Russian tanks in under a year.³ China's energy purchases since the invasion dwarf that sum.^1,3 Prices show why the discounted-barrel trade still works for both sides. ICE Brent crude front-month traded at $92.56 on Wednesday (2026-06-10), with the OPEC basket at $100.63. [LIVE_PRICES]¹ Urals, Russia's main export grade, lagged at $86.33, a discount that reflects the residual stigma of Western restrictions but still clears at a level Moscow can live with. [LIVE_PRICES]¹ European TTF gas front-month was €50.02. [LIVE_PRICES] The revenue pipeline shows no sign of closing. The EU has tried to cap Russian oil prices and cut gas imports, yet China's appetite for cheap crude puts a floor under Moscow's export earnings.¹ The Economist has argued that if Ukraine falls, the West's authority will erode further across a world already doubting US staying power.³ The next signal for markets is whether European capitals tighten secondary sanctions on Chinese banks clearing Russian energy payments.⁴ China's technology share rose 10 percentage points in a single year.¹ If that trajectory holds, Moscow's strategic comfort deepens and the war's distortions to energy flows persist.¹