South Korea has delivered over 176,000 tonnes of diesel to russia

The Guardian reports this, citing an analysis of port records and vessel tracking data.

According to the journalists, one of the tankers received its cargo via ship-to-ship transhipment in South Korean waters — a method that helps conceal the cargo’s origin and allows vessels to avoid calling at port terminals.

The largest carrier, the sanctioned tanker Layla, made two voyages from the South Korean port of Ulsan to Vladivostok — on 19 July and 10 August. In total, it carried 57,000 tonnes of diesel. During the first voyage, the vessel informed the South Korean authorities that its destination was Vladivostok, but during the second, it stated that it was heading for Niigata in Japan.

The tanker Astoria, which is subject to Australian sanctions, loaded nearly 11,000 tonnes of fuel in Ulsan on 1 August, stating Japan as its destination, but set sail for Vladivostok.

According to Kpler, a maritime analytics firm, the buyers included the russian oil company Rosneft, the russian oil group NNK, and one of its subsidiaries, NNK-Oil.

Although vessels subject to sanctions are involved in the fuel trade, this does not breach South Korean law, the media report adds. South Korea’s restrictions against russia mainly concern export controls on goods such as industrial equipment, electronics and vehicles.

Journalists noted that loading volumes at South Korean ports began to rise sharply in July — precisely when the country’s president, Lee Jae-myung, pledged to allocate $100 million for Ukraine’s reconstruction during the NATO summit in Turkey.

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs told journalists that the country had expanded its export controls on russia in accordance with the Foreign Trade Act — specifically, adding 1,402 items with a high potential for military use to the list of restrictions. They did not respond to questions about tankers subject to sanctions.

Subsequently, South Korea denied that it had supplied fuel to russia in contravention of its own sanctions against Moscow and called on Ukraine to refrain from public statements that “could undermine international trust in Korea”.

According to Ukrinform, this was stated by Kang Yu-jeong, a spokesperson for the South Korean presidential administration, as reported by the Yonhap news agency.

“The South Korean Presidential Administration has rejected accusations by a Ukrainian official that the country supplied fuel to russia in breach of the sanctions imposed against Moscow,” the statement reads.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jeong voiced this position the day after Vladyslav Vlasyuk, adviser to the President of Ukraine on sanctions policy, citing a report in the British newspaper The Guardian, claimed that in July and August, over 176,000 tonnes of fuel had been shipped from South Korea to russia on tankers subject to sanctions.

Vlasyuk wrote that these figures contradicted South Korea’s sanctions policy towards russia and accused Seoul of helping to alleviate russia’s fuel shortage amidst the war against Ukraine.

“Since russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our government has consistently implemented sanctions and export control measures against russia in close cooperation with the international community,” Kang noted in a written statement, adding that the government had already clearly expressed this position in response to the article in The Guardian.

“The fact that a representative of the Office of the President of Ukraine referred to an article in The Guardian to publicly portray South Korea as a country that is helping russia to alleviate the fuel crisis and the consequences of the loss of oil refining capacity, and is acting contrary to current sanctions policy, whilst relying on individual agreements, the key details of which (such as the parties to the agreement, the country of origin and the end buyer) have not been verified, is untrue and unacceptable,” she stated.

The South Korean government is currently verifying the facts and plans to take the necessary measures should any violations be identified, Kang added.

“We also urge Ukraine to refrain from misrepresenting the Republic of Korea’s policies without properly verifying the facts, and from making public statements that could undermine international trust (in South Korea),” she said.

An official from the National Security Office under the President of South Korea clarified that official trade statistics for the period from August 2025 to August 2026 did not record a single export of diesel fuel, petrol or aviation fuel from South Korea to the russian federation.

He also added that such fuel is not currently included in the list of 1,402 goods subject to South Korea’s export restrictions on russia.

Source: The Guardian, Babel, Yonhap, Ukrinform