How the new EU methane regulation could hit Russia's war machine
Last year, the European Union introduced a legislative mechanism to curb methane emissions in the energy sector. This mechanism, known as Regulation 2024/1787, covers both internal and external natural gas supply chains.
It contains a host of new rules and requirements for fossil fuel producers and suppliers, which, if used skillfully, could become an additional weapon for Ukraine and its allies.
Read more about how this "climate" legislation could help shut down Russian gas flows to Europe once and for all in the article by Oleh Savytskyi of Razom We Stand: Pressure via methane: how the EU’s new rules could accelerate the ban on Russian gas.
Russia’s vast gas infrastructure, much of it dating back to Soviet times, releases enormous volumes of methane into the atmosphere, emissions that were previously difficult to track.
Since 2021, independent satellite monitoring has revealed numerous large-scale methane leaks from pipelines, along with smaller but chronic emissions at gas fields, compressor stations and other facilities.
In this context, the EU Methane Regulation opens a unique window of opportunity for Ukraine.
Under the regulation, if a supplier cannot prove that its gas production and transportation meet European methane emissions standards, the EU market is automatically closed to it. For Russia, with its aging infrastructure and habitual disregard for environmental norms, this presents a massive problem.
In effect, this creates a "clean" mechanism to cut Russia off from the EU gas market. No additional political decisions or sanctions packages are needed: the regulation itself will gradually render Russian gas toxic and economically unviable for importers, ultimately shutting out Russian companies due to non-compliance with reporting requirements and methane emissions limits.
By the end of this year, EU gas importers must publish methane emissions data across their supply chains. From 1 January, 2027, they must prove that their suppliers meet MRV (Monitoring, Reporting and Verification) standards for methane emissions no lower than European levels.
Finally, starting in 2028, importers will be required to disclose emissions intensity per unit of fuel.
There is no doubt: Russian giants Gazprom and Novatek, unwilling and unable to provide detailed, transparent and verifiable methane leak and emissions data from their infrastructure, will fail to meet EU MRV standards.
Thus, thanks to the EU Methane Regulation, Russian companies could technically be excluded from the EU market as early as 1 January 2027, one year earlier than expected under REpowerEU.
Ukraine should engage in this process not only as an observer but as an active participant: by providing expert support for implementation of the regulation and by developing "clean" alternatives, including realising its potential to export green energy resources such as biomethane.
Crucially, the EU is not only raising the bar for its own energy companies but also extending its standards globally.
This represents a fundamentally new logic: if you want to trade with Europe, you play by its rules.
Therefore, blocking Russian gas exports through the Methane Regulation is an opportunity to unite EU climate policy with Ukraine’s security and economic interests.
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18 of September 2025
