​Despite the European technological embargo, EU products important for the war continue to reach the Russian defense complex. The anti-corruption agency has made public a database of Russian weapons components manufactured in the West.

Penalty with a short beating

Two years after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the EU wants to announce a new package of sanctions, the thirteenth. “We are in the final stages and we hope to accept it in the near future,” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said in Brussels on Monday.

The measures, first of all, will be aimed at better compliance with existing bans on exports to Russia. The EU’s goal was to block Russia’s access to Western technology, reduce the Kremlin’s revenues and weaken the country’s economy as a whole. The results of the sanctions policy are so far weaker than expected.

The war has turned into a material battle in which Ukraine is losing ground. “The Russian military economy produces sufficient war resources and continues to rely on Western components,” Handelsblatt.de reported on Tuesday.

The consequences are fatal: the number of Russian drone attacks in the second half of 2023 doubled compared to the first. There is also pressure on Ukrainians at the front. After many months of fighting, the Russians captured the city of Avdiivka.

List of thermal power plants

The EU, USA, Great Britain and other political allies of Ukraine agreed on a joint list of technological products and components. These “critical military goods”, known in technical jargon as “common high priority products” (CHP goods), are not weapons themselves, but play an important role in the production of weapons – semiconductors, communications equipment, circuits, certain electrical and computer techniques components.

Here is the statement of intent from late last year: List of common high priority items (europa.eu)

The EU and its international partners responded to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 with massive and comprehensive restrictive measures. These sanctions are intended to reduce Russia’s ability to wage war by depriving it of critical technologies and markets and significantly weakening its industrial base. Regulation 833/2014 imposing sanctions against Russia has been strengthened to include a ban on the export, sale, transfer of dual-use items and advanced technologies to target sensitive sectors of Russia’s military-industrial complex and limit its access to critical advanced technologies.

The list of TPP assets is constantly revised based on information about the use of Russian weapons in Ukraine. In December 2023, the anti-corruption agency of Ukraine made public a database of Russian components for Western-made weapons. This shows that Russia can rely on Western components for almost every weapon system.

From Germany, for example, microcircuits were found in the Russian attack helicopter Ka-52. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the Heran-2 drones, which Russia uses to terrorize Ukrainian cities, also contain German-made electronics.

On the one hand, this means that Russia is still dependent on Western technology. On the other hand, it turns out that the application of sanctions is inferior.

“Circumvention of sanctions begins at home”

Russia “continues to be able to import large volumes of goods needed for defense production,” writes the Kyiv School of Economics in a recent study cited by Handelsblatt. In the first ten months of last year, military cargo worth $8.77 billion arrived in Russia. That is, only 10% less than in the corresponding period before the application of sanctions.

According to a study cited by a German economic publication, “almost half (44%) come from companies in countries that actually support Ukraine in its defense struggle. American companies provide 26% of imports.” The total volume of CHP products from the EU would cost 535 million dollars.

Several European governments do not appear to be taking action against their companies’ violations of sanctions. “Circumvention of sanctions starts at home,” warns an EU official, reports Handelsblatt.

Sanctions are the responsibility of national authorities, such as customs and the police, and their willingness to act varies widely from country to country.

Most of the goods important for the war are not supplied directly from the EU or the US, but reach Russia through third countries. China plays a key role in this. More than half of imports go to Russia through the People’s Republic, followed by Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.