Russian missile attacks on state-owned natural gas assets in Ukraine have forced the country to buy expensive replacement fuel from the European Union, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union greatly affected this decades-old gas business. Russian gas now had to transit an independent Ukraine. Even so, Russia continued to increase its exports to Europe, with the exported volume rising from 110 billion cubic meters in 1990 to 175 billion in 2020.

Oil and condensate reserves increased by 592 million tons and natural gas by 708 billion cubic meters, surpassing the previous year's production levels of 516 million tons and 685 billion cubic meters respectively.