Reuters investigation shows Western sanctions have failed to stop five billionaires’ chemical factories from supplying Russia’s major explosives factories

Five major chemical manufacturers, partly owned by five Western-sanctioned billionaires, supplied more than three-quarters of the chemicals shipped by rail to some of Russia’s largest explosives factories between February 2022 and September 2024, journalists at Reuters learned by studying leaked tax invoices, records, and financial data for more than 600,000 rail shipments. The shipments contained products such as large amounts of nitric acid, acetic acid, and toluene (an ingredient in TNT).

The companies and billionaires in question are EuroChem and Andrey Melnichenko, Uralchem and Dmitry Mazepin, Evraz and Roman Abramovich, Sredneuralsk Copper Smelter and Iskander Makhmudov, and Lukoil and Vagit Alekperov. Spokespeople for Evraz, EuroChem, and Lukoil deny any involvement in production for military purposes.

“The analysis provides fresh evidence that the West's strategy of imposing sanctions on Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine has failed to curb its military production,” multiple experts told Reuters.