Germany to stop buying Russian coal on August 1, oil on December 31

Germany will cease buying Russian coal on August 1, and Russian oil from December 31, Germany's Deputy Minister of Finance Jörg Kukies said.

Report informs citing RBC-Ukraine that the key challenge for the German government is to fill the huge gap left when the European Union withdraws 158 billion cubic meters of Russian gas.

“Everyone familiar with the history of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which was already an instrument of Soviet influence on Eastern Europe, knows that getting rid of this dependence is not a trivial matter, but we will achieve this in a few months,” Kukies said.