Güney Kore’den Rusya’ya yakıt taşımacılığı, Ukrayna savaşında yaptırımların etkisini sorguluyor

Kısaca

Yakıt taşıyan tankerler ve hacim: Temmuz–Ağustos aylarında 176.000 ton yakıt, 7 tanker, 14 yolculuk Çeşitli Güney Kore limanları üzerinden Rusya’nın uzak doğusuna taşıma; bazı taşımalar yaptırımlarla sınırlı olan tankerler kullanıldı Durum, Seoul’ün Ukrayna politikasıyla Rusya ile ilişki dengesi kurma çabalarını ve yaptırım uygulamalarını sorgulatıyor

Ana mesele

Güney Kore’nin bazı portlardan Rusya’ya yakıt taşıyan tankerlerin varlığı, yaptırımların uygulanmasına dair güvenliği zayıflatıyor

Ne değişti?

İlk kez Güney Kore kaynaklı bazı yakıt yüklemlerinin Rusya’ya taşındığı belgelendi

Beni nasıl etkiler?

Okuyucular için küresel enerji tedarik zinciri ve yaptırımların uygulanması konusunda endişe doğurabilir

Ne oldu?

Guardian analizi, Temmuz–Ağustos aylarında 176.000 ton yakıtın Güney Kore limanlarından Rusya’ya götürüldüğünü ortaya koydu.

Neden şimdi?

Savaş devam ederken yaptırımların etkisi tartışılırken böyle sevkiyatlar dikkat çekti.

Neden önemli?

Yaptırımlar rejiminin etkinliğini zayıflatma potansiyeli var; Seoul’ün Ukrayna’ya desteğini ve uluslararası baskıları etkileyebilir.

Kimler etkileniyor?

• Birleşmiş Krallık ve Avrupa’nın bazı yaptırım tankerlere yönelik yasağı
• Güney Kore hükümeti ve enerji tedarik zinciri katılımcıları
• Rusya enerji alıcıları ve tedarik güvenliği
• Ukrayna’ya siyasi destek veren aktörler

Sektör ve piyasa etkisi

Enerji ve lojistik zincirlerinde kısmi kırılma ve güvenlik endişesi, navlun maliyetlerinde değişim potansiyeli

Riskler

• Yaptırımların etkisiz kalabileceği
• yeniden yapılanmış tedarik hatları ile denetim zorluğu
• uluslararası siyasi gerilim artışı

Takip edilmesi gerekenler

• Yaptırım otoritelerinin denetim adımları
• Güney Kore’nin ilgili mevzuatta değişiklik yapıp yapmayacağı
• Rusya ile enerji ticaretinin çeşitlenip çeşitlenmeyeceği
• Kamuoyunun ve yatırımcı güveninin durumu

Haberin tamamı

Drone Aerial View of an Oil Tanker Ship Sailing under a bridge in Busan, South Korea. Composite: Guardian Design View image in fullscreen Drone Aerial View of an Oil Tanker Ship Sailing under a bridge in Busan, South Korea. Composite: Guardian Design South Korea Oil from South Korea being shipped to Russia as Ukraine war grinds on Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds more than 150,000 tonnes of fuel was shipped to Russian ports in July and August, some using sanctioned tankers

Prefer the Guardian on Google Oil is being shipped from South Korea to Russia via sanctioned tankers as Moscow scrambles for supplies amid the war in Ukraine, a move one expert said “undermines” Seoul’s public backing for Kyiv.

Guardian analysis of port records and ship-tracking data found that in July and August over 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, was loaded at several South Korean ports on to seven tankers that made 14 voyages to Russia’s far east.

Three of the vessels were under sanctions by the UK and EU, and one took on its cargo through a ship-to-ship transfer in South Korean waters – a method that can obscure where a cargo came from and lets ships avoid calling at port terminals.

“It is shocking that EU-sanctioned tankers loaded fuel at South Korean ports and carried it to Russia”, said Isaac Levi, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finnish thinktank. “This undermines the sanctions regime and South Korea’s support for Ukraine .”

Read more Seoul has sent Ukraine humanitarian aid and non-lethal military supplies such as helmets, body armour and demining vehicles, and in 2023 pledged $2.3bn in support, most of it in loans.

But South Korea has long sought to balance its support for Ukraine with its desire to improve ties with Russia. Throughout the war, Seoul has ruled out sending weapons directly to Ukraine, in line with its practice of not supplying lethal arms to countries at war. Moscow has signalled an interest in restoring relations with South Korea, including trade ties.

While the fuel trade involves vessels sanctioned by some of Seoul’s western partners, it does not appear to breach South Korean law. South Korea’s own measures against Russia rely mainly on export controls on goods such as industrial machinery, electronics and vehicles.

The shipments, however, risk making Seoul look like a weak link in western efforts to pressure Russia, as relations with Kyiv come under strain over the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, which Seoul says was meant to remain secret.

It is unclear who owned or sold the fuel, which South Korean port records do not show.

The largest carrier, the sanctioned Layla , made two voyages from the south-eastern port of Ulsan to Vladivostok leaving on 19 July and 10 August and carrying 57,000 tonnes of diesel in total. On the first trip, it told South Korean authorities its destination was Vladivostok, but on the second it said it was bound for Niigata in Japan.

Another sanctioned tanker, the Russian-flagged Astoria , which is also under Australian sanctions, loaded nearly 11,000 tonnes of fuel at Ulsan on 1 August, declaring Japan as its destination, before sailing to Vladivostok.

Read more The third sanctioned tanker, the Chongchon , never berthed. It took on about 26,000 tonnes of fuel from an unsanctioned tanker, the Celeste I, at an anchorage off the southern South Korean port of Yeosu in early August, then headed to Vladivostok after declaring Singapore as its destination.

The owners and managers of the four tankers did not respond to requests for comment.

Russia’s capacity to refine oil has been severely disrupted by Ukrainian drone strikes. Its refinery throughput fell in June to its lowest level in more than 20 years, and diesel output is down nearly 30% on last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the HUR, says Moscow has been forced to import fuel products to feed the “Russian war machine”.

According to data from the maritime analytics firm Kpler, the buyers included Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company, which is under UK, US, EU and Australian sanctions , and NNK, a Russian oil group whose owner, Eduard Khudainatov , and one of its companies, NNK-Oil, are under UK sanctions.

In August, Russia imported 368,000 tonnes of oil products by sea, more than seven times the previous month and the highest monthly total since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Kpler data analysed by CREA. South Korea accounted for 112,000 tonnes, or 31%, of that amount, second only to India.

Loadings at South Korean ports began to surge in July, just as the country’s president, Lee Jae Myung, pledged $100m for Ukraine’s reconstruction at a Nato summit in Turkey.

A 2025 trade association survey found that nearly 80% of South Korean firms that had stopped exporting to Russia since the war began were open to resuming trade.

In March, as the war with Iran shut the strait of Hormuz, South Korea capped exports of certain fuels and imported Russian naphtha under a US sanctions waiver.

On 1 October, the UK temporarily exempted South Korea’s existing gas contracts from a ban on maritime services for Russian LNG that takes effect in January 2027.

When contacted, South Korea’s foreign ministry did not address the shipments or the sanctioned tankers. In a statement, it said that as “a responsible member of the international community, the government supports, and is actively taking part in, international efforts to help end the war in Ukraine and bring about a peaceful recovery.”

It said it had expanded its export controls on Russia under the Foreign Trade Act “beyond strategic items to 1,402 non-strategic items with a high potential for diversion to military use” and was “strictly enforcing” them.

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Kaynaklar

• The Guardian - World