Despite the sanctions, German companies could have supplied more than 300 cargoes to Russia in 2023 for the production of vehicle parts or ammunition. An investigation by the German television company SWR provides evidence of this.
By the end of December 2023, more than 300 deliveries from German manufacturers had reached Russia, according to Russian customs documents the TV company obtained.
Most of them are large industrial machines or CNC (computer numerical control) machines.
These computer-controlled machines can, for example, cut steel, bend sheet metal, and weld metal parts in a fully automatic mode.
Olena Yurchenko, an advisor to the Economic Security Council of Ukraine, stated that Russia uses 80% of its CNC machines for military production, with Germany leading the market with a share of up to 30%.
The journalists said that through video and photography, they managed to find out that Russian companies Parsec, Kamaz, NIR, and Industrial Solutions supply the Russian military with engines and parts for aircraft and missiles.
According to customs documents, all of these companies continued to import German equipment last year. It is possible that Russia will receive such machines this year as well, the journalists noted.
The TV company also managed to identify more than 30 German manufacturers whose machines were imported to Russia last year, many of them located in Baden-Württemberg, a traditional place of machine building.
The manufacturers include: Walter Maschinenbau, Vollmer, Fein GmbH, Heller, etc.
Journalists report that about two-thirds of the cases involved the import of the machines into Russia through Turkey, with some Turkish intermediaries having direct ties to Russia and others founded by Russian entrepreneurs.
Manufacturers contacted by journalists blame the intermediaries, saying that they violated the sanctions regime without the knowledge of German companies.
Experts see the possibility of stopping illegal exports in strengthening sanctions and control over their compliance.
Although companies may not know where their products end up, they can easily find out and take action.
Earlier, the German TV channel ARD conducted an investigation that revealed that Knauf and WKB Systems were building facilities in Mariupol.
After that, the official Berlin warned German companies against participating in any Russian projects in the occupied city.
