BRUSSELS, August 4. /TASS/. The European Commission will continue to seek a complete ban on Russian energy supplies from the EU market, despite difficulties with electricity generation and gas purchases in the EU, European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said at a briefing in Brussels.

"Our goal is to ban all Russian energy from European markets and we are well on the way to making this strategy come to a successful conclusion," she said.

Itkonen confirmed that the European Commission continues to work on a complete and permanent trade ban on Russian oil supplies to Europe. She noted that purchases of Russian oil are already under EU sanctions, ‘with the exception of Hungary and Slovakia,'" but the European Commission is working with them to help them switch to other sources.

Commenting on the shutdown of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary due to record-breaking low river water levels due to heatwaves, Itkonen noted that the European Commission does not currently see any threats to EU electricity supplies as a result.

According to TASS calculations based on Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data, net gas injection (the net difference between injection and withdrawal) into European underground storage facilities (UGS) in July was the lowest in six years, amid heat waves and falling LNG imports. UGS reserves by the end of the month were close to a historic low.

Gas withdrawal from European storage facilities in July exceeded 1 billion cubic meters for the first time in four years (up 55% year-on-year). Meanwhile, UGS injection was the lowest in two years, at 9.6 billion cubic meters. Thus, total net injection in July was 21% lower than last year and a six-year low, at only 8.5 billion cubic meters. m. At the end of July 2026, Europe's underground gas storage facilities were 56.88% full (16.31 percentage points lower than the average for that date over the past five years) compared to 68.6% a year earlier.