Media: US urges companies to halt shipments to 600 entities over concerns of supporting

A US official has revealed that the US has asked American companies to halt shipments to over 600 foreign entities amid concerns that the goods might be redirected to Russia and used in its war against Ukraine, as per Reuters.

Since the onset of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has many times found foreign components in Russian missiles and drones launched on its peaceful cities and villages. On 23 March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine discovered at least 7,500 foreign components in the Russian missiles and drones used in the attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure on 22 March, UNIAN reported.

“In all of those Iskanders, Kinzhals, and other Russian missiles, in Shahed drones are dozens of components that are imported for terror from different countries around the world.

There were at least three hundred types of components from ten countries in the missiles used in this air assault against Ukraine, targeting our energy system. Together with the Shaheds, it totals at least 7,500 components,” the president stated.

Zelenskyy emphasized that each of these components represents a violation of sanctions imposed on Russia and reflects an attempt to profit from the destruction of lives.

The president also underscored the importance of uniting efforts with Western partners to prevent the Kremlin from circumventing sanctions and stop missile terror in Ukraine. He called for strengthening economic measures against Russia and urged allies to enhance Ukraine’s air defense systems.

According to Reuters, in recent weeks, the US Commerce Department of the US sent letters to at least 20 companies with warnings, the latest effort to stymie the Russian war machine.

The department said the companies produce and sell products found in missiles and drones recovered inside Ukraine.

Since Moscow invaded Russia in 2022, the US and more than 30 other countries have put in place a raft of sanctions aimed at degrading Russia’s ability to wage war by cutting off access to Western technology. Still, American components continue to be found in Russian weapons left on the battlefield in Ukraine and its cities.

For instance, in 2023, Ukraine discovered that a Russian missile, which struck the center of Chernihiv and killed seven people, including a six-year-old girl, contained four components from the US. An investigation launched after the assault revealed that it had been manufactured no earlier than March 2023, suggesting that these components had been likely supplied to the aggressor after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“In the last several weeks, we’ve sent letters to more than 20 American companies, each containing a list of more than 600 foreign parties.

“In those letters, we’ve requested that the American companies voluntarily stop shipping to these parties due to the high risk of transshipment to Russia,” Assistant Secretary Matthew Axelrod said at the department’s annual export control conference.

Axelrod noted that high-ranking officials from the Commerce, State, and Treasury departments were actively engaging with senior executives of US corporations. These discussions explore additional measures these companies can implement to mitigate the risk of diverting their products to Russia.

According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2022, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security took additional steps to address the problem of exporting components for Russia’s weapons, changing the process of documenting cases of violation of export control, including by creating a program that encourages companies to self-report possible infractions.

Axelrod said the program resulted in the bureau seeing an 80% increase in the number of voluntary disclosures from businesses in the prior fiscal year.

The bureau has already reviewed more than 700 suspicious transaction reports and taken action in connection with more than 100 of the filings.

“That’s a new stream of evidence that the Commerce Department had not been getting before and I think in the long term will be a game changer for them,” said Jonathan Poling, a former federal prosecutor and a partner at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who works with companies to comply with US export controls rules.

Earlier, Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) had created the world’s first open global inventory detailing foreign components utilized in Russian and Iranian missiles, drones, electronic warfare systems, and other military equipment, the agency announced.

Ukraine launches public database tracking foreign components in Russian, Iranian weaponry

As of December 2023, the War and Sanctions portal featured a list of over 2000 foreign parts Russia used to produce its missiles launched on Ukraine almost every day. The service also included names of companies that helped the Kremlin wage its war. In addition, the portal contained information on individuals who were sanctioned by Ukraine and allied countries.

The National Agency for Prevention of Corruption has stated that it will share the information posted on the “International Sponsors of War” section of the “War and Sanctions” portal to the Interagency Working Group on implementing the State Sanction Policy. The agency will also prepare documentary materials for transmission, which serve as the basis for the inclusion of the specified information.

According to the agency, the maintenance of the specified registries also requires standardization and the determination of government bodies responsible for their operation. Therefore, until this issue is resolved, access to these sections will be temporarily closed.

Since its establishment, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption attempted to exert pressure on large international companies that continue to conduct business with Russia. The idea proved to be successful: Western businesses became nervous and outraged, and in two cases, entities on the list were even forced to sell assets and exit the Russian market.

The Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that due to the “war sponsors” list, Kyiv faced significant pressure and even blackmail from certain Western partners, which provided the most considerable amount of assistance during Russia’s war. As a result, last year, one after another, companies from three countries that exerted the most substantial pressure on Ukraine were excluded from the “war sponsors” list.

This week, news emerged of the government’s idea to “transfer” the sanctions registry, including the registry from the anti-corruption agency’s portal, to another body. In light of the new decisions, experts fear the problem with the government’s steps will not improve the situation around the “sponsor” registry but will instead stop investigations.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to find ways to circumvent sanctions, managing to acquire foreign components despite existing economic measures.

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