ROME (Dispatches) -- Italy has increased its imports of Russian crude in spite of efforts by the European Union to end its dependence on Russian energy over the Ukraine crisis.

Italy has imported about 450,000 barrels per day this month, four times as much as in February and the most since 2013, said media reports. The country is now close to overtake the Netherlands as the largest importer of sea-shipped Russian oil in the EU, according to data obtained from commodity tracking firm Kpler cited by the Financial Times.