The United Kingdom will prohibit British shipping companies and insurers from facilitating the export of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) as part of new sanctions aimed at curbing Moscow’s fossil fuel revenues, Politico reported.
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the measures on Tuesday (local time) during a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Niagara, Canada. The move extends the UK’s existing ban on Russian LNG imports, which has been in effect since 2023, and will now target British firms still providing maritime and insurance services for tankers carrying Russian LNG nearly four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the report, the new restrictions will be phased in during 2026 and are part of a coordinated sanctions package with the European Union. The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the measure aligns with the EU’s latest sanctions, which will ban imports of Russian LNG under long-term contracts by January 1, 2027, and sooner for short-term agreements.
The timeline means British firms will still be permitted to handle LNG shipments destined for Europe until the EU’s import ban fully takes effect.
Following Russia’s invasion in 2022, Europe’s pipeline gas supplies from Russia fell sharply, prompting record imports of LNG transported by sea. Politico cited data from the campaign group Razom We Stand, which identified British company Seapeak Maritime Glasgow Ltd as having facilitated around four million tonnes of LNG cargoes from the Yamal LNG terminal in Siberia during the first half of 2025 — accounting for nearly 39% of total shipments from the project in that period.
The Yamal LNG terminal is Russia’s main export hub for gas bound for Europe and is partly owned by French energy major TotalEnergies. While Politico noted that TotalEnergies’ UK subsidiary supplies gas to the British public sector under an £8 billion contract, the company clarified that its gas is sourced domestically and complies fully with the UK’s ban on Russian LNG imports.
Reacting to the announcement, Svitlana Romanko, founder and executive director of Razom We Stand, welcomed the UK’s decision.
“As missiles and drones continue to devastate Ukraine daily, the U.K. government’s move to impose a maritime services ban on Russian LNG is a long-overdue and welcome step,” she said. “Cutting off U.K. maritime support for Russian LNG exports will choke the revenues fuelling Putin’s brutal war machine.”
Alongside the sanctions, the UK government has pledged an additional £13 million to help restore and protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which has been repeatedly targeted by Russian strikes.
This is not the first time the UK has acted against Russia’s maritime network linked to energy exports. In June 2024, London imposed its first sanctions on vessels in Putin’s so-called “shadow fleet”, used to secretly transport Russian oil and evade G7 restrictions. Those measures also targeted entities supplying munitions, machine tools, microelectronics , and logistics to Russia’s military — including firms based in China, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, and Türkiye — as well as ships ferrying military goods from North Korea to Russia.
The latest LNG sanctions mark another escalation in the UK’s efforts to tighten the economic noose on Moscow’s energy trade, a crucial source of funding for its ongoing war in Ukraine.
