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Taiwanese companies continue to supply precision industrial machines for factories that fuel Russia’s war machine, in defiance of sanctions, according to an investigation by Ukrainian watchdog organization StateWatch.
Precision tools process high-strength alloys used in the production of artillery barrels, missile bodies and drones. Russia imports at least 70% of its Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines from companies in Europe and Asia. Most countries involved have banned selling Russia equipment that can be used to make war materiel.
Moscow gets around these bans, largely by working with middlemen in countries like China and Türkiye. However, “even Taiwan, a strategic partner of the US, has been implicated in these supply chains,” StateWatch wrote in its 13 November report.
Since 2022, millions of dollars worth of dual-use machinery has made its way into Russia through Taiwan’s involvement. These include brands like Fedek, Sunmill, and Golden Machinery.
The recipients include companies linked to Russia’s military-industrial complex, including Zenik, Kami-Group, Intervesp, Metalmash, and Stanki Tekhnologii Instrument.
At least 70% of Russia’s CNC machine tools are imported, largely from the US, EU, and Japan. Over 80% of all CNCs end up in Russia’s military production facilities.
Over $10 million worth of industrial equipment
LNS Group is a global company that manufactures bar feeders and CNC lathes. According to Russian customs data, LNS machines worth nearly $5 million have entered Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion.
These exports were mainly facilitated by Taiwanese company TWT Global Enterprise limited. Kami-Group, which sells machine tools, is the largest Russian recipient, according to the report.
Russian company Zenit published a YouTube video in December 2024, showing LNS’s Fedek-branded equipment at its factory.
A flashlight manufacturer, Zenit also makes red-dot and thermal sights, laser target designators, and tactical firearm accessories for Russia’s troops and intelligence agencies, on top of donating products to Russian troops in Ukraine.
Fedek machines have also been spotted at the G.I. Petrovsky Plant in Nizhny Novgorod, which makes equipment for the Russian Navy, engineering troops, and manufactures avionics.
Zenit’s video also shows Sunmill machines. The manufacturer, Jeenxi Technology Co, of Taiwan, “supplied high-precision equipment directly to Russia’s military sector” also to the tune of $5 million, as of December 2024, according to StateWatch.
Russian state contractors Intervesp and Intervesp-M, both of which are internationally sanctioned, were reportedly among the recipients.
Taiwanese Golden Machinery Co, which manufactures beverage bottling equipment, supplied $800,000 worth of industrial machines to Russia, according to customs data.
The main recipient was Stanki Tekhnologii, which trades in metalworking equipment and its website shows it regularly signing contracts with Russian defense enterprises.
Stanki Tekhnologii got $430,000 worth of equipment directly from the manufacturer and the rest via a Turkish intermediary.
South Korean firms also implicated
South Korean brands have also been spotted in Russia, according to a recent report by the Economic Security Council of Ukraine, a Kyiv think tank.
Between 2024 and 2025, more than $3.7 million worth of Korean-made cutting tools and CNC machines got into Russia through complex transshipment networks involving China, Türkiye, India, Uzbekistan, Lithuania and Thailand.
Products from at least three South Korean precision toolmakers were exhibited at the annual Metalloobraboka expo in Moscow in May.
“The key issue is not simply covert shipments,” Olena Yurchenko, director for analysis and investigations at ESCU, wrote in a statement to Korea JoongAng Daily and Euromaidan Press.
“What we find alarming is that products made by South Korean brands, which are de facto banned from Russia [since 2022], are now being openly advertised and promoted in Moscow.”
Moscow casts a wide net
These figures are a drop in the bucket compared to the $18 billion worth of machine tools reportedly supplied to Russia from Europe and China.
This includes 57 CNC machines worth over $26.5 million from European subsidiaries, along with components and consumables valued at more than $9.5 million.
In October, Germany raided Spinner, a high-precision machine tool manufacturer suspected of knowingly supplying equipment to Russia’s military industry. Three individuals have already been charged with violating sanctions.
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