? Sputnik / Sergey Guneev / Go to the mediabank

The European Union has boosted the imports of Russian liquefied natural gas by 42% between January-October 2022 year-on-year, British financial newspaper reported.

The LNG imports from Russia during the period amounted to 17.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas (bcm), with Belgium, France, Spain and the Netherlands topping the list of importers, according to the news outlet.

This year, Europe has imported 111 bcm of LNG between January-October from the global market, increasing the import volumes by 70%, while last year the EU purchased 155 bcm of Russian natural gas and LNG, the report said.

It added that Russia had been Europe's second largest energy supplier, but its share lowered by 16% in 2022 due to EU's imports of US LNG, which accounted for 42% this year.