Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian energy sector has been broadly targeted by 19 rounds of European sanctions. Coal, oil and gas have all been affected. However, the nuclear industry has been completely spared and remains the exception.
In Brussels, discussions about potential sanctions, initially planned for June 2025, were postponed. At a time when France is described as one of the main countries opposing a full ban on Russian nuclear deliveries, a report published on Wednesday, January 28, by the anti-nuclear NGO Greenpeace once again underscored that the trading of uranium, the fuel for nuclear power plants, continues between Paris and Moscow, shrouded in opacity.
The links between France and Russia on this issue have been extensively documented in recent years. Ships from Saint Petersburg or Ust-Luga, on the Russian Baltic coast, regularly continue to dock at the Port of Dunkerque, northern France, carrying containers filled with uranium in various forms. While France does not import natural uranium mined in Russia itself, the latest customs data analyzed by Greenpeace showed that between 2022 and September 2025, nearly half of these raw material imports came from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet republics.
Probably because Kazakhstan is a land locked country (the Caspian Sea doesn’t really count). So the options are to transport through either russia, iran or china. Through china is a much longer route, so it will be more expensive, and I’m not sure china would want to get uranium to France. Iran is not an option because of international sanctions that have been in place for a lot longer than the ones against Russia. And through Russia is by far the shortest route.
I understand it. There is difference between buying from and shipping via.
This is what prompted my question.