The EU, on the other hand, which relies on Russia for as much as 27 percent of its oil needs and 40 percent of its natural gas supply, has struggled to agree an outright ban.
This week, the economic bloc took its first steps to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, after being urged to do so by Western allies.
On Wednesday, Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy spokesperson, said that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU had paid Russia around €35billion (£29.1billion) for energy supply.
Member states backed a proposal to ban Russian coal imports – sales of which are estimated to have amounted to around €4billion (£3.3billion) a year.
source: express.co.uk