The Daily Populous Sunday July 5th, 2026 night edition
Authored by united24media.com and submitted by Garbage_Plastic

Russia is preparing to import a shipment of jet fuel originating from Japan as it grapples with a growing domestic fuel shortage following repeated Ukrainian strikes on its energy infrastructure, according to three sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters on July 3.

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The sources said at least 200,000 barrels of jet fuel are expected to be loaded in Chiba, Japan, during the first half of July. The cargo will initially be transported to South Korea, where several trading companies are reportedly involved in the transaction.

According to two of the sources, the fuel is expected to be transferred to another tanker—likely through a ship-to-ship operation off the South Korean port of Yeosu—before being shipped onward to Russia. The cargo's final destination inside Russia has not been disclosed.

Reuters noted that the shipment would mark one of the few known imports of foreign jet fuel into Russia since the start of the full-scale war. According to Kpler ship-tracking data, the previous recorded delivery occurred in February 2022, when approximately 22,000 barrels of jet fuel were transported from Yeosu to the Russian Far East port of Vladivostok.

The need for imports comes after a sustained Ukrainian campaign targeting Russia's oil refining sector. Overall, since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has carried out at least 158 attacks on Russian refineries, with at least 24 of the country's 33 largest facilities—each capable of processing more than one million metric tons of crude oil annually—coming under attack.

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TheReceptiveShaving on July 4th, 2026 at 04:41 UTC »

The ship-to-ship transfer off South Korea is the real story here. You load at the port of origin, transfer in third-country waters, and the paperwork gets fuzzy enough that nobody has to directly own the transaction. Japan can technically say the fuel went to a neutral buyer, and Russia gets what it needs.

The cover is getting pretty thin though. Everyone knows where this fuel is headed, and the Japanese government will probably issue some statement about private sector activity being beyond their control. Technically true, but also the whole point of how these loopholes work.

The bigger question is whether this scales. 200,000 barrels is a drop in the bucket for Russia's fuel needs, but it works as a proof of concept. If this transfer goes smoothly, more shipments will follow, and Japan's sanctions suddenly have a quiet back door that nobody wants to acknowledge out loud.

EternalMayhem01 on July 4th, 2026 at 04:19 UTC »

The Reuters investigation exposed what is a secret deal between Russian, Korean and Japanese traders. Some folks are only attacking Japan's government as having double standards, while leaving South Korea out of their attacks, but attacks against both governments are unfair when these folks have no real evidence of their governments involvement.

The deal is very much against existing sanctions. Now that the story is public, Japan and South Korea are going to crackdown on the companies involved in order to avoid triggering sanctions against their own sectors. Both Japan and South Korea have aligned on western sanctions concerning Russia and oil, but there is always groups looking to circumvent such sanctions. People being unfair and attacking Japan or South Korea, are no doubt folks who forget that European and US electronics continue to be found in Russian missiles striking Europe.

Garbage_Plastic on July 4th, 2026 at 03:36 UTC »

SS:

Russia to Import 200,000 Barrels of Japanese Aviation Fuel via Ship-to-Ship Transfer

Russia..to import a shipment of jet fuel originating from Japan..as it grapples with a growing domestic fuel shortage following repeated Ukrainian strikes on its energy infrastructure. At least 200,000 barrels of jet fuel are expected to be loaded in Chiba, Japan, during the first half of July. The fuel is expected to be transferred to another tanker..through a ship-to-ship operation off..South Korea..before being shipped onward to Russia. The shipment would mark one of the few known imports of foreign jet fuel into Russia since the start of the full-scale war.