Russian natural gas deliveries to European markets collapsed in 2025, plunging by roughly 44% compared with the previous year and hitting their lowest level since the mid-1970s. This historic decline followed the shutdown of the Ukrainian transit corridor in January and the European Union’s accelerating campaign to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports.
Earlier this year, the EU formally committed to ending purchases of Russian gas by the end of 2027, as part of a broader strategy to dismantle decades-long energy dependence on Moscow and curb revenues that could help finance the war in Ukraine. For much of the past half-century, Europe was one of the core revenue pillars of Russia’s state budget, underpinned by vast Soviet-era pipeline systems built in the 1960s and 1970s.
At their peak in 2018 and 2019, Russian gas exports to Europe exceeded 175 billion cubic meters per year, delivering tens of billions of dollars in income to Gazprom and the Russian state. Those flows have now collapsed. In 2025, Gazprom’s deliveries to Europe are estimated at just 18 billion cubic meters, all of which moved through a single route — the TurkStream pipeline — levels last seen more than fifty years ago.
TurkStream is now Russia’s only remaining pipeline corridor into Europe after Ukraine declined to renew its five-year transit agreement, which expired at the start of the year. The countries still receiving notable Russian volumes through this route include Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey, the latter also remaining one of Gazprom’s largest individual customers.
Despite the pipeline collapse, Russia continues to export gas by sea. The country is still the EU’s second-largest LNG supplier after the United States, highlighting how liquefied natural gas has partially replaced lost pipeline flows.
Short-term data point to volatility rather than recovery. In December, gas flows via TurkStream into Europe rose by nearly 13% year-on-year, averaging about 56 million cubic meters per day, and were up roughly 3% compared with November. Over the full year, exports through TurkStream increased by around 7% to 16.8 billion cubic meters, while Gazprom’s deliveries to Turkey alone remain close to 20 billion cubic meters annually.