Western sanctions on Russian fossil fuels are a phantom. Revenue flowing into Kremlin coffers from foreign sales of oil, gas and coal is high, having doubled in the first 100 days of the war. The Western energy sanctions regime is not working. This is for a very simple reason — it doesn’t exist. Before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Russia was comfortably the world’s largest exporter of fossil fuels. Today it can sell oil, gas and coal directly to every country except the US, which was a negligible customer at first. Some influential US and European commentators argue that restrictions on Russian oil exports cause pain to ordinary citizens in Western countries without reducing the Kremlin’s revenues. They argue that Western sanctions have failed. However, the measures taken by the West so far cover less than 5 percent of Russia’s pre-war crude oil exports. Seaborne crude exports, although down since mid-June, remain higher than at the start of the invasion. In large part, this is because it has been legal to import Russian oil into the EU and the UK, and will remain so until at least December. Each week, around 10 to 20 million barrels of crude arrive in Europe from Russian ports as traders turn the so-called “phase-out” into a frenzy. Even in the US, the only country with sanctions against the direct import of Russian oil, motorists—perhaps unknowingly—continue to fill their vehicle tanks with Russian-sourced gasoline. In what can only be described as a global laundering operation, Russian crude is transported to foreign refineries and then imported into the US as gasoline. Once the oil is refined into other products, it can legally enter the US without violating sanctions. The UK will also continue to import millions of barrels of blended Russian oil in the coming months. This trade is likely to continue even after the UK ban comes into effect at the end of this year. It will be possible because of the cuts in the rules that will allow companies to import CPC Blend, crude oil that is a mixture of products of Kazakhstan and Russia, transported through a Caspian Sea pipeline. These are not the embargoes Americans and Britons were right to expect when President Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, the outgoing UK prime minister, announced punitive measures in March. Failure to impose a real embargo on Russian oil and gas is straining Putin’s revenues and funding war crimes in Ukraine. To some extent, today’s high energy prices reflect traders’ expectation that curbs on Russian oil are easing. But crude oil prices had been rising for months before the invasion and before the West announced sanctions. In addition, West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude oil prices have been falling steadily since early June, just as Russia’s crude exports began to decline. The claim that current oil prices are a result of minimal restrictions imposed by Western governments on Russia’s fossil fuel exports does not stand up to scrutiny. The big energy companies, which have made huge profits over the past six months, bear far more responsibility for the pain felt by energy consumers. Companies such as BP & Shell in the UK, which earned $8.5bn and $11.5bn respectively from April to June, and Wintershall in Germany, on $1.9bn, are doing very well , but these gains are nothing new for the industry. This is a sector that has been making impressive gains every day for the past 50 years. In recent days, EU and UK policymakers have eased their existing restrictions. They have created a straw man in their sanctions regimes. Without giving the sanctions a chance to work properly, they are now dismantling them. This backsliding is rewarding Putin even as his forces commit atrocities in Ukraine and as Russia expands the territorial goals of its illegal war. Ukraine will never forget the support given to us by our partners. But when it comes to fossil fuels, the West faces a clear choice. Anyone serious about supporting Ukraine must stop funding Putin’s regime. Business as usual only serves to prolong the war, which has crippled the entire world economy. The most effective solution must include a full and immediate embargo on Russian fossil fuels in Europe and the swift implementation of G7 proposals for a global price ceiling on Russian oil. The sooner Putin is stopped, the sooner we can move forward with rebuilding Ukraine. That means keeping Russian fossil fuels in the ground and turning imaginary energy sanctions into real ones.