ENVIRONMENT campaigners in Britain hit out at eight of the world’s biggest energy companies, including BP and Shell, today for sending billions of pounds to Russia since the Crimea invasion.

In the seven years since Russia annexed Crimea, just eight of these companies helped to enrich Vladimir Putin’s government by $95.4 billion (£72.4 bn), according to a new analysis by Global Witness, Greenpeace and Oil Change International.

Projects backed by BP were responsible for the highest payments to Russia, totalling $78.4 bn (£59.5bn). This includes payments because of the oil giant’s stake in the Russian company Rosneft.

Shell was next highest with payments to Russia amounting to $7.9 bn (£5.9bn), while Exxon paid $2.8bn (£2.12bn).

Greenpeace UK head of energy Rosie Rogers said: “For decades Big Oil has been fuelling the climate crisis in full knowledge of its catastrophic consequences.

“It’s clear these companies have a faulty moral compass, so it should come as no surprise that they kept filling Putin’s coffers as he pursued his deadly imperialist dreams from Ukraine to Syria.

“There’s not just an environmental imperative for the UK to get off fossil fuels, but a moral one too.

“Only by massively scaling up renewable energy and rolling out a nationwide programme to green our homes will we end our dependence on gas and its spiralling prices. If not now, when?”

Global Witness’s Murray Worthy said: “The Russian energy industry is Putin’s biggest earner and companies like BP that turned a blind eye to the Crimean invasion, continuing to support money pouring into his war chest, should surely be questioning whether they now have Ukrainian blood on their hands.”