The value of critical military components shipped from Belarusian companies to Russian arms manufacturers doubled in 2024 compared to 2022, according to trade data, exposing significant gaps in the international sanctions regime.
Fifty-eight Belarusian firms sent at least $1.2 billion worth of military equipment and components to Russia between February 2022 and August 2025, export records show. The shipments included optics systems, missile-launching equipment, and heavy wheeled chassis delivered to 41 Russian defense plants.
Ukrainian military intelligence assessments indicate Russia is heavily dependent on Belarusian supply chains, relying on its neighbor for up to 85 percent of its optoelectronic systems and sights, up to 90 percent of its wheeled chassis for missile systems and heavy equipment, and up to 80 percent of its transport-launching and loading units.
Just over half of the Belarusian suppliers identified in the data are currently subject to Western sanctions, leaving 29 unsanctioned firms free to continue exporting to Russia. One such company, a Belarusian subsidiary of a British firm, supplied brake hydraulics components to a Russian manufacturer of armored personnel carriers.
The largest identified supplier, a Belarusian optoelectronics producer, shipped $875 million in goods to Russia. This included targeting equipment for a major tank manufacturer and sights for armored vehicles to a Russian optical plant. Ukrainian military personnel have confirmed finding the Belarusian company’s products inside captured Russian tanks and personnel carriers.
The second-largest supplier by shipment value was a Minsk-based wheeled tractor plant, which provided at least 91 chassis worth more than $30 million to a Russian manufacturer of howitzers, plus additional components for self-propelled launchers and air defense systems.
A third major supplier sent $62 million in transport-launching and loading units to a Russian manufacturer of cruise missiles.
Sanctions researchers say the absence of many suppliers from international blacklists is due to slow legal procedures, conflicting interests among EU member states, and uneven political will. While acknowledging sanctions are imperfect, experts argue they still increase costs and create scarcity for critical components, forcing internal competition that degrades civilian sectors in Russia and Belarus.
The data also reveals that Belarusian companies received approximately $800,000 worth of Western-origin goods routed through Russia between April 2022 and July 2025, including German electrical instruments, Swiss motors, British integrated circuits, American microchips, and Italian chip-manufacturing hardware. These goods moved through intermediary companies in Hong Kong, China, Thailand, and India before reaching their final destination.