The US has hit companies in Turkey, the UAE and China with a fresh round of sanctions as part of efforts to stop Russia obtaining sensitive technologies for its war in Ukraine.
Kyiv’s allies have grown increasingly concerned about Russia using these countries either as sources or conduits for high-end electronics and high-precision goods that it is unable to produce domestically.
The latest US package is timed to coincide with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington this week, a show of support for Kyiv even amid political roadblocks that have raised doubts about future military aid.
The sanctions attack both military contractors and civilian companies that have turned to supporting Russia’s war effort, leading to increasing confidence from the Kremlin that it can bolster its arsenal while western resolve to support Ukraine crumbles.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, said last week that Ukraine’s overreliance on western backing doomed it to lose the war.
“When you don’t have your own raison d’être, no ideology, industry, money, or anything of your own, then you don’t have a future. And we do,” Putin told a group of servicemen in comments published on Sunday.
Janet Yellen, US treasury secretary, said: “Our sanctions today continue to tighten the vice on willing third-country suppliers and networks providing Russia the inputs it desperately needs to ramp up and sustain its military-industrial base.”
The Financial Times reported in November that Nato member Turkey’s exports of military-linked parts to Russia have soared since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
The US, EU, UK and other western partners say these so-called “high-priority” goods are items of particular value to Russia’s war effort and include microchips, navigation equipment and scopes.
Washington and Brussels are particularly frustrated that Turkish companies are purchasing dual-use items. which have commercial and military applications, from western suppliers and then re-exporting them to Russia either directly or through intermediaries in central Asia and eastern Europe.
One of the newly sanctioned Turkish companies, Kartal Exim, describes itself as a “multifunctional supplier of technological equipment”. Russian records suggest it has shipped about $2.1mn of goods to Orlan LLC — a St Petersburg company that is a self-described fishing equipment supplier.
By far the largest category of goods shipped from Kartal Exim to Orlan, worth $1.1mn, was listed as “data transmission” equipment, a category on the high priority goods list. The items, shipped from Istanbul, were made by western suppliers including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fujitsu, Dell and Samsung.
Russian records list that Ozkaya Otomotiv, another company on the list, has shipped $4mn of goods to Russia — largely ball bearings made by Fersa Bearings, a Spanish company. Bearings are also on the high-priority items list.
While Turkey has not applied western sanctions directly on Russia, it says “strict monitoring and prevention of efforts to skirt sanctions through Turkey is an integral part of our . . . policy”.
The new sanctions come at a sensitive moment for Turkey’s relations with its western allies. Turkey is hoping to finally clinch congressional support to purchase billions of dollars worth of US F-16 fighter jets, and has also expressed an interest in purchasing European Typhoon aircraft, a plan that has been blocked by Germany. The US and EU are also vigorously lobbying Turkey to approve Sweden’s accession to the Nato military alliance.
In the UAE the new sanctions have targeted 12 companies, many of which are involved in moving aircraft parts into Russia. One of the sanctioned entities is Aspect DWC, a UAE company which, according to Russian customs records, has been shipped parts for Dassault business jets.
A major focus of sanctions on Chinese companies was a procurement network run by Hu Xiaoxun, a businessman. According to the US Treasury, his company — Jarvis HK — has exported ammunition, loitering munitions and semiconductor microchip manufacturing equipment from China into Russia.
The US also listed 17 other Chinese entities, including Beijing Yunze Technology and Chang Guang Satellite Technology.
According to the listing, the two companies supplied satellite imagery used in Russian operations, including by the Wagner Group. Russia, the Treasury noted, had become “reliant on PRC commercial satellite imagery”.
The US measures also target companies that have helped transfer munitions and military equipment from North Korea to bolster Russia’s war effort.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has swung to support Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine after meeting Putin in September.