Bangladesh, Feb. 23 -- As the war in Ukraine grinds into another year, Western governments continue to insist that unprecedented sanctions have constrained Russias military-industrial complex. Yet a new investigation suggests that the architecture of those sanctions remains porous. According to a report by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK), traders operating in Hong Kong and mainland China have enabled a steady flow of European electronics and dual-use components into Russia-many of which ultimately appear in weapons systems deployed on Ukrainian battlefields.

The findings underscore a structural problem in global sanctions enforcement: the mismatch between national export controls and the transnational networks th...