Despite international sanctions aimed at restricting Moscow’s wartime production, Russia has significantly increased its imports of nitrocellulose - a crucial explosive compound essential for production of artillery ammunition - notably from companies based in the US and other Western countries and allies.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, citing trade data, these imports have surged by 70% in 2022, the year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and by mid-2023, they had reached 3,039 tons, almost double the level of 2021.
The surge in Russian nitrocellulose imports comes at a time when defence companies worldwide are struggling to secure this vital material due to a shortage, leading to price hikes and production bottlenecks. Nitrocellulose, primarily used in munitions, faces strict international trade regulations, limiting its production to only a few countries.
Russia produces little nitrocellulose, the main ingredient in smokeless gunpowder used in artillery, so Moscow’s ability to source it abroad has played a pivotal role in its war against Ukraine, the report quoted US officials and analysts as saying.
“The nitrocellulose that goes into the propellant becomes an artillery shell,” Wall Street Journal quoted Bradley Martin, a 30-year US Navy veteran who now heads Rand’s National Security Supply Chain Institute, as saying.
“The majority of battlefield deaths and a lot of the civilian collateral damage is from artillery,” he added.
According to the report, while nitrocellulose is also used for civilian purposes in inks, paints, varnishes and related products, analysts believe that the surging imports are meant for arms, given that the Russian economy has been reoriented for wartime production.
This surge in exports to Russia from Western companies coincides with a global nitrocellulose shortage, affecting NATO countries’ artillery production for Ukraine. For instance, Poland has taken steps to revive its nitrocellulose production to address the increasing demand for artillery amid these circumstances.
