A Belgian company that makes diapers and other hygiene products has continued running a subsidiary inside Russia's largest drone manufacturing complex months after European Union rules required it to leave, according to reporting by the Kyiv Independent.
The company, Drylock Technologies, operates a Russian subsidiary based in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, a sprawling industrial site that has become Russia's primary hub for producing the Shahed attack drones used in strikes on Ukraine.
EU sanctions rules set a deadline of January 25, 2026 for companies to wind down operations at Alabuga. Drylock missed that deadline and instead applied to Belgium's Federal Public Service Economy for an exception allowing it to keep operating there. As of the investigation's publication, that exception had not been granted.
An FPS Economy spokesperson, Etienne Mignolet, said any exemption from the ban is treated as a departure from a general prohibition and is examined strictly, rather than granted as a matter of course.
Enforcement of the wider EU sanctions regime falls to officials including David O'Sullivan, the bloc's sanctions envoy, whose office has pushed companies across Europe to sever ties with Alabuga and other sites tied to Russia's drone production.
The Kyiv Independent's reporting also found that Drylock's Russian subsidiary had used its account on the Russian social network VK to publicly mark occasions tied to the country's armed forces, including posts around Airborne Forces Day in August and Russian Navy Day in July, and to voice support for employees who join the Russian military.
The case highlights the gap between the EU's sanctions timetable and what companies with existing footholds in Russia are actually doing on the ground, with Drylock continuing operations inside one of the country's most sensitive industrial zones well past the deadline meant to end them.