Russia's Fertilizer Industry Fueling War Efforts Amid Global Dominance

Russia's fertilizer industry has become a key player in the country's war efforts, and its owners are not just ordinary businessmen. Dmitry Mazepin of Ultrachem and Andrey Melnichenko of Eurochem have close ties to the Kremlin and have used their influence to take over other fertilizer producers. In fact, they have been personally sanctioned by the EU for their role in providing explosives for the war.

The industry's connection to the war is not just coincidental. Fertilizer plants produce industrial acids and nitrogen intermediates that are essential for making high explosives. Investigations by Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Ukrainian NGO Nako have revealed the massive scale of this operation, with Uralchem and Eurochem being two of the main suppliers of explosives to the Russian military.

Despite being a major contributor to Russia's war efforts, the fertilizer industry has largely escaped sanctions. The EU only imposed restrictions on Russian fertilizers in mid-2025, but even then, it was just a tariff on imports. The US, on the other hand, has no sanctions regime in place for fertilizer imports from Russia.

The absence of sanctions has allowed Russia to exploit its natural gas reserves and dominate the global fertilizer market. In 2022, Russian fertilizer exports boomed, with a 27% increase in nitrogen fertilizer imports into the EU. This surge was made possible by the Kremlin's manipulation of European gas supply, which devastated EU manufacturers and created opportunities for exporters.

However, the US has a unique opportunity to replace Russia as a major fertilizer supplier. With its abundance of cheap natural gas, the US could become the lynchpin of a Russian fertilizer suppression strategy, preserving access to markets, keeping prices low, and progressively removing Russia from the market.