South Korea Faces Questions Over Russia Fuel Shipments

South Korea reportedly handled large fuel shipments to Russia through its ports between July and August.An investigation by The Guardian, based on port records and ship-tracking data, found that more than 176,000 metric tons of fuel, mostly diesel, were loaded at South Korean ports in July and August onto seven tankers that made 14 voyages to Russia’s Far East.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Three of the vessels were under UK or EU sanctions. One received its cargo through a ship-to-ship transfer in South Korean waters, a method that can make a shipment’s origin harder to trace.Isaac Levi, an analyst at the Finland-based think tank Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), told The Guardian that the shipments “undermine” Western sanctions and South Korea’s support for Ukraine.The shipments do not appear to violate South Korean law, the report says, as Seoul’s sanctions on Russia primarily focus on export controls covering goods such as industrial machinery, electronics and vehicles.However, the shipments also cast doubt on Seoul’s stance on the war in Ukraine, particularly as Seoul has publicly supported Kyiv while stopping short of providing lethal weapons.South Korea has supplied Ukraine with humanitarian aid and non-lethal military equipment and pledged $2.3 billion in support in 2023, largely through loans.At the same time, Seoul has sought to preserve its economic ties with Moscow and has ruled out directly providing weapons to Ukraine. Other Topics of Interest Fresh Intelligence Signals Massive Russian Strike Ahead, Zelensky Says Ukraine is preparing countermeasures, but its supply of interceptors against ballistic missiles depends entirely on foreign partners, Zelensky said. Fuel flows to Russia surgeThe Guardian found that the sanctioned tanker Layla made two voyages from Ulsan to Vladivostok, carrying a combined 57,000 tons of diesel. On one voyage, it declared Vladivostok as its destination, while on another it listed Japan.Another sanctioned tanker, the Russian-flagged Astoria, loaded nearly 11,000 tons of fuel at Ulsan before sailing to Vladivostok. The vessel is also under Australian sanctions.The third sanctioned vessel, the Chongchon, did not enter a South Korean port. Instead, it received around 26,000 tons of fuel from the unsanctioned tanker Celeste I during a ship-to-ship transfer off Yeosu before heading toward Vladivostok.The findings echoed a report from Reuters in early July, which said Russia sought jet fuel from Japan’s Chiba port to Russia via South Korea, though it’s unclear whether the operations relate to the latest findings presented by The Guardian.In the rumored plans, the cargo was expected to arrive in Russia in the first half of July after a likely ship-to-ship transfer off Yeosu, South Korea. Its final destination remained unclear.The reported route would mirror a similar shipment in 2022, when around 22,000 barrels of jet fuel were transported from Chiba to Russia’s Far Eastern port of Vladivostok via Yeosu.South Korea declined to comment, while the Japanese and Russian ministries did not respond.The owners and managers of the four tankers contacted by The Guardian did not respond to requests for comment.Russia has faced growing fuel shortages after Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted its refinery network. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Russian refinery throughput fell in June to its lowest level in more than two decades, while diesel production was down nearly 30% from a year earlier.By July, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed to have knocked 43% of Russia’s refinery capacity offline.According to The Guardian, Kpler data analyzed by CREA showed that Russia imported 368,000 tons of oil products by sea in August, more than seven times the previous month. However, the figure appears to be higher than the 172,000 tonnes listed by CREA in its August report.The outlet also said South Korea accounted for 112,000 tons, or about 31% of Russia’s overall imports, second only to India, while CREA’s publication noted that Egypt, not South Korea, followed India in terms of volume.Kyiv Post has reached out to CREA for clarification.The increase began in July, around the time South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pledged $100 million for Ukraine’s reconstruction at a NATO summit in Turkey.Diplomatic rift between Kyiv and SeoulThe fuel shipments come as relations between Seoul and Kyiv face a separate diplomatic dispute over two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces.The soldiers were captured in January 2025 while fighting alongside Moscow forces in Russia’s Kursk region and were reportedly transferred to South Korea in September 2026.President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly disclosed the transfer during his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, but South Korea says the transfer had been agreed to remain confidential to protect the soldiers and their families in North Korea.Seoul subsequently demanded an explanation and apology from Kyiv.South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said Tuesday that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had apologized in messages exchanged over the incident, but that the apology did not meet Seoul’s expectations.Cho added Seoul was considering several responses, including recalling its ambassador to Ukraine, Park Hee-chang.Ukraine has described the dispute as a diplomatic misunderstanding. Zelensky’s office said Seoul had been informed of the president’s UN speech in advance and that the address did not disclose identifying information about the soldiers.Cho said the soldiers’ safety, and that of their relatives in North Korea, had been the primary reason for the confidentiality agreement. He also suggested, while stressing that it was his personal interpretation, that Zelensky may have wanted to demonstrate at the UN that Ukraine had acted appropriately as a liberal democracy. Julia is a Deputy Head of News and correspondent for Kyiv Post who has previously worked as a parliamentary editor, journalist, and news editor. She has specialized in covering the work of the Ukrainian parliament, government, and law enforcement agencies.