Governments are spending hundreds of billions of euros to ease the pain of high gas prices. It may not stop a deep recession.

The economic damage from the shutdown of Russian gas flows is piling up fast in Europe and risks eventually eclipsing the impact of the global financial crisis.

With a continent-wide recession now seemingly inevitable, harsh winter is coming for chemical producers, steel plants, and car manufacturers starved of essential raw materials who’ve joined households in sounding the alarm over rocketing energy bills.