South Korea threatens legal action over suspected fuel shipments to Russia
South Korea's government said it will take legal measures if an investigation confirms that fuel shipments from South Korean ports to Russia violated the country's domestic legislation.
Gurban Gurbanzadeh3 min read
Updated: October 8, 2026 10:31 am
South Korean authorities said they will take legal measures if an investigation shows that fuel shipments from South Korean ports to Russia violated the country's domestic legislation. The corresponding statement was circulated by the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Trade and the customs service.
The government said it is "checking additional information about the loading cases" and that "if the investigation establishes that our laws and regulations were violated, it plans to act in accordance with the law."
Shipments and sanctions
According to an analysis of port records and vessel data, in July and August more than 176,000 tonnes of fuel, predominantly diesel, were loaded at several South Korean ports onto seven tankers that made 14 voyages to the Russian Far East.
Three of the tankers were under UK and EU sanctions. One of them took on about 26,000 tonnes of fuel through a ship-to-ship transfer at a roadstead near the southern port of Yeosu.
This trade "undermines the sanctions regime and South Korea's support for Ukraine," said Aizek Levi, an analyst at the Finnish research centre CREA.
According to the International Energy Agency, oil refining in Russia fell sharply because of Ukrainian drone strikes: in June, refinery utilisation dropped to its lowest level in more than 20 years, and diesel fuel output fell by almost 30% compared with the previous year.
Seoul's statement says that the relevant petroleum products are not covered by South Korea's export controls in relation to Russia, which apply mainly to industrial equipment, electronics and vehicles. "The loading of petroleum products at our ports does not constitute a violation of our domestic legislation," the statement says.
The government also indicated that the fact of the export of fuel of South Korean origin, including diesel, "has not been confirmed," and that diesel fuel, aviation fuel and motor gasoline were not "exported" from South Korea to Russia through customs clearance. It is not known who owned or sold the fuel: this data is not publicly reflected in South Korean port records.
Seoul cautioned that "the very fact that a vessel headed not directly to the destination country stated in its declaration, but to another country, complicates a conclusion about suspicion of a false declaration of destination." The authorities intend to study the actual routes of the tankers, the discrepancies with the declared destinations and their causes, before judging a possible violation of the law.
The three tankers under sanctions told South Korean authorities they were heading to Japan or Singapore, after which they set off for Vladivostok. The Russian tanker Aram Khachaturian, which is not under Western sanctions, loaded three times in Ulsan in July and August and each time indicated a destination other than Russia before setting off there.
Ukraine's reaction
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that these shipments are in "sharp contrast" with South Korea's sanctions policy. South Korea's presidential office called these statements "at odds with the facts and inappropriate" and asked Ukraine to refrain from public comments capable of harming South Korea's international reputation.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry reportedly said it had raised the issue of fuel supplies with Seoul through closed diplomatic channels and asked for explanations. A representative of the ministry, Heorhiy Tykhyi, said Kyiv has "its own data on such activity."
Source: theguardian.com
