South Korea vows to take legal action over its alleged fuel exports to Russia | Russia-Ukraine War
Ukrainian reports of South Korean fuel exports to Russia come amid tense tensions between Seoul and kyiv.
Published on October 8, 2026
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the government would take legal action against illegal fuel shipments to Russia if allegations by an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are confirmed.
The Foreign Ministry said Thursday it had not confirmed whether any South Korean fuel, including diesel, had been exported to Russia.
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He added that exports of certain products, such as diesel and jet fuel for commercial purposes, were not included in South Korea’s export control list to Russia.
South Korea’s presidential office on Wednesday rejected a statement by Vladyslav Vlasiuk, adviser to the Ukrainian president on sanctions policy, that 176,000 tons of fuel had been shipped from South Korea to Russia via sanctioned tankers in July and August.
Ukraine’s top sanctions official said the alleged findings ran counter to South Korea’s sanctions policy toward Russia.
“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, our government has systematically implemented sanctions and export controls against Russia in close cooperation with the international community,” South Korean presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said Wednesday, according to Yonhap news agency.
“We call on Ukraine to also refrain from misrepresenting relevant policies of the Republic of Korea without sufficient fact-checking and making public remarks that could harm international trust,” she added.
Relations between South Korea and Ukraine have become strained in recent weeks after Seoul accused Zelensky of “unilaterally disclosing” to the United Nations General Assembly that kyiv had transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea.
Seoul Korea has demanded a formal apology from kyiv, saying the Ukrainian president violated a non-disclosure agreement. Kyiv said no such deal was in place.
Pyongyang and Moscow, meanwhile, have deep ties, with the two countries signing a mutual defense treaty in 2024. According to Ukrainian and South Korean estimates, around 14,000 to 15,000 North Korean troops have been sent to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine.
North and South Korea technically remain at war because the 1950–1953 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
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