Taiwan becomes world’s largest importer of Russian oil: purchases brought in $1.7 billion to budget - report
Despite official statements of support for Ukraine and joining international sanctions against Russia, Taiwan became the world's largest importer of Russian oil in the first half of 2025, bringing the Kremlin billions of dollars in revenue to finance the war.
This is stated in a joint report by the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, the Taiwanese non-profit organization Environmental Rights Foundation, the German organization Ecodefense, and the international human rights organization Urgewald, according to Censor.NET.
As a result, in the first half of 2025, Taiwan imported $1.3 billion worth of Russian oil, becoming its largest buyer in the world. In total, these purchases brought $1.7 billion to Russia's budget in the form of mineral extraction taxes. This is despite the fact that Taiwan officially joined the economic sanctions against Russia and provided Ukraine with bilateral assistance worth $50 million.
At the same time, according to the report, Taiwan paid Russia more than $11.2 billion for Russian energy imports—an amount 220 times greater than the amount of aid provided to Ukraine. Thus, the study revealed a clear discrepancy in the approaches of state-owned and private companies.
