Russia state-controlled energy giant Gazprom was in the red last year for the first time in almost a quarter of a century after trade with Europe nosedived in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

Gazprom reported on Thursday a net loss in 2023 of 629 billion roubles (around $6.9 billion), missing analyst estimates.

Russian media outlets reported this was the first annual net loss at Gazprom since 1999.

Following a profit of 1.23 trillion roubles in 2022, the first year of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian analysts had forecast a profit in 2023, too, albeit smaller.

The current slump can be largely explained by the extremely low natural gas supply volumes to Europe, which was once a major market for Gazprom.

In protest against Western sanctions imposed over the Kremlin's war, Moscow itself largely turned off the gas tap to in the summer of 2022.