On 1 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree imposing sanctions on major Russian businesses, including Novatek, Russia’s second-largest gas producer and dominant liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter. This move signals Ukraine’s determination to dismantle the fossil-fueled foundations of Russia’s war economy – and puts the ball squarely in the court of Western allies.
The new Ukrainian sanctions list targets Novatek’s crown jewels: its Yamal LNG, Arctic LNG 2, and Murmansk LNG projects, along with key international trading subsidiaries in Singapore and Switzerland. These include Yamal Trade Pte. Ltd, Novatek Gas & Power Asia Pte. Ltd., and Novatek Gas and Power GmbH, which facilitate Russian LNG shipments to European and global markets. Novatek and 18 of its subsidiaries and joint venture projects are now listed in Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council sanctions register.
Ukraine has formally notified the EU, the US, and other states of the measures and is urging coordinated international action.
This should be a wake-up call. As Ukraine bleeds daily under Russian bombs and missile strikes, the Western world continues to buy Russian LNG – and Novatek is the primary beneficiary.
Novatek: Putin’s silent gas weapon
Novatek is not just another Russian energy company. It is the largest private natural gas producer in Russia and a strategic enabler of the Kremlin’s imperial ambitions.
CEO Leonid Mikhelson is deeply embedded in the power structures of Putin’s regime. His ties extend to the upper echelons of government, including personal and financial connections to Putin’s daughters, Dmitry Medvedev, and State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin.
Mikhelson has secured lucrative tax breaks and gas field concessions by transferring company shares to Putin’s inner circle.
But Novatek is not only politically compliant to Putin’s regime – it is directly complicit in its war crimes.
Investigative journalists have exposed that Novatek supplies gas to industrial facilities operated by the Russian Ministry of Defence, including ammunition factories fueling the war. Novatek-controlled companies have recruited soldiers, provided logistical support to combat units, and funded the Courage Foundation, which transfers financial assistance to Russian troops and mercenaries.
Even Novatek’s private security personnel have been deployed to the Ukrainian front, paid through this Kremlin-aligned foundation.
This is no longer about economics – it is about active support for a genocidal war.
The Arctic front of a global conflict
Novatek is also expanding Russia’s fossil fuel empire in the Arctic, one of the world’s most environmentally fragile and geopolitically sensitive regions. Its LNG exports, especially from Yamal LNG, have boomed.
According to the Centre for High North Logistics, in 2024 alone, 287 LNG carriers left Yamal, each loaded with roughly 74,000 tonnes of supercooled gas.
These Arctic megaprojects are central to Russia’s strategy to bypass US and EU sanctions on Russian energy and continue earning billions in foreign revenue. That revenue fuels everything from missile production to disinformation campaigns, election meddling, and military modernization.
The fact that these operations continue unhindered by international sanctions is a stunning policy failure.
LNG: the Kremlin’s clean-looking disguise
Unlike oil, Russian LNG is still not subject to coordinated Western sanctions. In 2023 and 2024, Russian LNG imports to the EU increased, with major volumes going to France, Spain, and Belgium.
Novatek’s LNG reaches Europe not only directly but also through transshipment points near Russian shores and murky intermediaries for spot market trade, including shadow fleet vessels operating under flag-of-convenience regimes.
Novatek is also trying to re-launch operations of Arctic LNG 2 terminal, which were thwarted by US sanctions last year, and continues to build a second line of the project using Chinese equipment.
By continuing to buy Russian LNG, European countries violate the spirit of the REPowerEU plan and undermine their own geopolitical credibility. Meanwhile, Novatek’s international subsidiaries serve as convenient cover, masking the origin of Russian gas in global trade and enabling Putin to adapt to sanctions on Russian fossil fuels with stunning agility.
Ukraine leads, the West lags behind
Ukraine has now done what the EU and US should have done two years ago: designate Novatek as a key enabler of war of aggression, strip it of international legitimacy, and shut its trading doors abroad.
The new sanctions are not symbolic. They include asset freezes, trade restrictions, and prohibition of collaboration with Novatek’s international entities.
They also send a powerful message: there is no such thing as “clean Russian gas” – all fossil fuel exports from Russia carry the blood of Ukraine and the price tag of environmental collapse and climate breakdown.
Designation of Novatek and its subsidiaries as sanctioned entities by Ukraine should catalyze long-overdue measures by international allies.
What must be done now:
- The EU, UK, and US must impose full-swing sanctions on Novatek and its subsidiaries, including international traders and Arctic joint ventures.
- Ukraine’s allies must also adopt personal sanctions against Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson and other top company managers.
- Novatek’s access to LNG carrier vessels should be blocked, and coordinated action should be taken against any vessels and ports involved in export operations.
- Secondary sanctions should target financial institutions and businesses that continue to engage with Novatek, especially in Switzerland and Asia.
- LNG importers in Europe must terminate long-term contracts and accelerate the phase-out of Russian LNG, in line with REPowerEU and climate goals.
If the EU can live without Gazprom’s pipeline gas, as proved by the last two winters, then there’s definitely a way to ditch any gas deliveries from Russia, including LNG.
After the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in 2022 and the expiry of Gazprom’s gas transit contract through Ukraine, which ended on 1 January 2025, Europe’s pivot away from Russian gas has progressed a long way and it should not be reversed.
According to a new analysis published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), EU measures to reduce gas demand have driven a decline in the bloc’s combined imports of pipeline gas and LNG, helping to ensure its energy security.
A test of moral clarity
Today Novatek’s unrestricted LNG exports to European and global markets remains a dangerous loophole in the sanctions regime and a growing revenue stream for the Kremlin. Sanctioning Novatek’s international trading subsidiaries is essential to enforce the provisions of the 14th EU sanctions package (which, since the end of March, bans transhipment of Russian LNG in EU ports) and the principal aim of the REPowerEU plan to phase out all imports of Russian fossil fuels in Europe by 2027.
A new report from Razom We Stand shows that the EU already has everything it needs—the technology, the tools, and the policies—to break free from Russian gas dependence, including LNG.
Improvements in energy efficiency, scaling up renewables, switching heating and industry over to electricity, and smarter energy use are all critical steps. But despite this, many EU countries continue to drag their feet and prolong the process, to the detriment of the innocent people of Ukraine.
Accelerating the shift to homegrown renewables is the key to Europe’s energy security now and into the future, yet many politicians are still mired in the past.
Western governments often say they “stand with Ukraine.” But standing with Ukraine means acting with urgency and resolve. It means ending complicity in Russia’s fossil-fueled war by cutting off one of the last profitable and growing export lifelines that the Kremlin has. The longer Novatek operates freely on global markets, the longer Russia’s war machine will grind on.
There is no such thing as decarbonization with bloodstained gas. And there is no lasting peace in Europe without full derussification of its energy supply. The time to act is now.
Editor’s note. The opinions expressed in our Opinion section belong to their authors. Euromaidan Press’ editorial team may or may not share them.
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