Europe plans to spend $221 billion to ditch Russia's energy - CNN

Presenting its "REPowerEU" plan on Wednesday, the European Commission said it would attempt to slash consumption of Russian gas across the bloc by 66% by the end of this year — and break its dependence completely before 2027 — by saving energy, finding alternate sources and speeding up the transition to renewables.

"We are taking our ambition yet to another level to make sure that we become independent of Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a Wednesday press briefing.

The European Commission said more time was needed for landlocked states that rely heavily on Russian oil delivered via pipelines to find alternate supplies.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is particularly reliant on Russia's gas, but has managed to cut Russia's share of its imports from 55% to 35% since the invasion, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said last month.

The urgency to ditch Russian energy ratcheted up in April when the country cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, making good on President Vladimir Putin's earlier threat to suspend deliveries to "unfriendly" countries which refused to pay in rubles.

Finnish state-owned gas firm Gasum — which has also refused to pay in rubles, unlike some of Europe's other energy companies — said on Wednesday that its Russian gas supplies could be cut off this weekend.