The tanker Layla left Ulsan for Vladivostok on 19 July carrying diesel fuel. It returned to the South Korean port, then sailed again on 10 August after telling authorities that it was bound for Niigata, Japan. It arrived instead in Vladivostok.
Layla, which is under UK and European Union sanctions, carried a total of 57,000 tonnes of diesel on its two voyages. Its route formed part of a larger flow in July and August 2026, when South Korean ports shipped over 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, to the Russian Federation.
Seven tankers made 14 voyages to Russia’s Far East during the period, and three of the vessels carrying fuel were subject to UK and EU sanctions. The information was analysed by The Guardian using port records and vessel-tracking data.
Other ships took similarly indirect routes. The Russian-flagged Astoria, which is subject to Australian sanctions, loaded nearly 11,000 tonnes of fuel in Ulsan on 1 August. It listed Japan as its destination before later heading to Vladivostok.
Near Yeosu in early August, the sanctioned tanker Chongchon received about 26,000 tonnes of fuel from the non-sanctioned Celeste I through a ship-to-ship transfer. Chongchon then headed to Vladivostok.
The trade does not appear to breach South Korean law. Seoul’s measures against Russia rely mainly on export controls covering industrial machinery, electronics and vehicles, rather than fuel.
Isaac Levi, an analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Finnish thinktank, said: ‘It is shocking that EU-sanctioned tankers loaded fuel at South Korean ports and carried it to Russia’.
Levi said the shipments ‘undermines the sanctions regime and South Korea's support for Ukraine’.
South Korea has supported Ukraine in other ways. It has sent humanitarian aid and non-lethal military supplies including helmets, body armour and demining vehicles, while ruling out direct weapons deliveries.
In 2023, South Korea pledged $2.3bn in support to Ukraine, most of it in loans. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it had provided 630 million euros ($706 million) in bilateral aid as of February 2026.
The foreign ministry said that, as ‘a responsible member of the international community, the [South Korean] government supports, and is actively taking part in, international efforts to help end the war in Ukraine and bring about a peaceful recovery’.
On 2 October, President Lee Jae Myung warned of ‘additional measures’ against Ukraine if its government refused to take responsibility for a downward spiral in Kyiv-Seoul relations.
Russia’s fuel imports rose to a record 172,000 tonnes in August 2026, more than seven times the previous monthly high. Severe constraints on refinery capacity forced Russia to import fuel from South Korea and to buy back gasoline refined from its own crude in India.
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