SOUTH KOREA PUSHES BACK AGAINST UKRAINE OVER RUSSIAN FUEL SHIPMENTS
South Korea has responded sharply to Ukraine’s accusation that fuel moving through its ports helped Russia ease shortages created by Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.
A spokesperson for President Lee Jae Myung called the Ukrainian allegations “incorrect and inappropriate,” arguing that essential details—including the fuel’s country of origin, the companies involved and the final purchasers—have not been fully verified. Seoul says official trade statistics show no recorded South Korean exports of diesel, gasoline or jet fuel to Russia between August 2025 and August 2026.
However, that does not dispute the central finding that fuel departed from South Korean ports and reached Russia. Shipping records and vessel-tracking data reportedly show more than 176,000 tonnes of petroleum products, primarily diesel, being carried from South Korea to the Russian Far East during July and August. Seven tankers completed 14 voyages, and three of those vessels were under British or European Union sanctions.
Both accounts could technically be true: fuel can be loaded or transferred in South Korean waters without being produced in South Korea or officially recorded as a direct South Korean export to Russia. That legal distinction does not eliminate the larger question—how were sanctioned vessels allowed to obtain fuel through South Korean ports or waters before delivering it to Russia?
Seoul says it is now reviewing the transactions and will take action if violations are identified. There is currently no evidence that the South Korean government organized or knowingly approved the deliveries. The issue is whether traders exploited gaps in South Korea’s export rules and sanctions enforcement while Russia urgently searched for imported fuel.
The defensive response comes as relations between Kyiv and Seoul are already strained over the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers. That dispute may explain the increasingly sharp language, but it does not resolve the shipping evidence. Ukraine’s accusation now places pressure on South Korea to determine who supplied the fuel, who purchased it and why sanctioned tankers were able to carry it to Russia.