# TESTIMONY: The Axis of Upheaval Struck — US Sanctions Against Iran, China, and Belarus

> On June 11, 2026, the American government announced sanctions against 13 entities spread across Iran, Belarus, and China. These entities had supplied materiel to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which in turn supplies Russia with Shahed drones used in Ukraine. In a single decision, Washington targeted three of the four nations that certain analysts call the "Axis o

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Profile
- Published: 2026-06-29
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/temoignage-l-axe-du-desordre-frappe-les-sanctions-americaines-contre-l-iran-la-c

## Introduction: Sanctioning Three Actors in a Single Move

### On June 11, 2026, Washington strikes wide

On **June 11, 2026**, the American government announced sanctions against **13 entities** spread across **Iran**, **Belarus**, and **China**. These entities had supplied materiel to the **Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)**, which in turn supplies **Russia** with **Shahed** drones used in **Ukraine**. In a single decision, **Washington** targeted three of the four nations that certain analysts call the **"Axis of Upheaval"** — the constellation of authoritarian states that support, directly or indirectly, the Russian war effort.

This sanctions package is significant not only for its geographic reach, but for its underlying logic: it attacks the **supply chains** feeding the Russian military rather than targeting **Russia** alone. This is an important strategic evolution. Targeting **Moscow**'s suppliers — the **circumvention networks**, the intermediaries, the facilitators — is potentially more effective than multiplying direct sanctions on a Russian economy already structurally adapted to their presence.

*I read in this American decision an important signal: Washington has understood that the war in Ukraine is not won only on the Ukrainian front. It is also won by cutting the supply lines that allow Moscow to hold. Targeting Iran, Belarus, and China simultaneously sends a message to Putin: your allies are not out of reach.*

## Shahed Drones: A Weapon of Systematic Destruction

### Usage that broke records in 2026

The use of **Iranian Shahed drones** by **Russia** in **Ukraine** reached record levels in **2026**. These devices, also called **"kamikaze drones"** or **"loitering munitions,"** are used in swarms to saturate Ukrainian air defenses and strike civilian and infrastructure targets. Their relatively low production cost — estimated at between **20,000 and 50,000 dollars** per unit — and mass production make them an economically accessible weapon for a war of attrition.

Available data, notably from the **OSINT** organization **Oryx** and reports from Ukrainian military command, show that **Shahed** drone strikes have targeted primarily **energy systems** (power stations, transformers, distribution networks), **transportation infrastructure**, and **urban concentrations**. The cumulative effect on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is devastating. Millions of people are deprived of electricity, heat, and clean water for extended periods.

### Russia produces its own Shaheds

A crucial development of **2025-2026** is that **Russia** has begun producing its own versions of the **Shahed** drone, named **Geran-2**, on its own territory. This industrial capability, developed with Iranian technology transfer and components supplied through global procurement networks, reduces **Moscow**'s direct dependence on Iranian deliveries. It also represents a long-term threat: even if direct deliveries from **Iran** were entirely stopped, **Russia** would retain a growing production capacity.

This is why sanctions against the entities supplying **components** to the **IRGC** — which then allow **Iran** to produce **Shaheds** and **Russia** to produce **Geran-2**s — represent an indirect but potentially more effective approach. Striking the components at the source means draining the technological pipeline before it even reaches the assembly lines.

*Russia's capacity to produce its own Shaheds on its own territory is one of the most troubling military-industrial developments of this war. It means that even a complete rupture of Iranian deliveries would no longer be enough to stop the rain of drones on Ukrainian cities. The West needs to target components much further upstream in the chain — and that is exactly what these sanctions are attempting to do.*

## Iran's Role: Moscow's Strategic Partner

### Tehran provides more than drones

The relationship between **Iran** and **Russia** has deepened well beyond the **Shahed** drones alone. Documented reports — notably from **Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty** — show that **Iran** has provided **Russia** with ballistic missiles, military advisers, and training in the use of these systems in real combat conditions. In return, **Russia** has provided **Iran** with military equipment, propulsion technologies, and potentially information on Western defense systems.

This mutually beneficial relationship is consolidated by a shared rejection of the Western liberal international order. For **Tehran** as for **Moscow**, the war in **Ukraine** is an opportunity to test weapons systems under real conditions, to weaken the credibility of Western institutions, and to probe the resilience limits of democratic alliances. This is a convergence of strategic interests that goes well beyond a simple commercial transaction.

### American sanctions on Iran and their effects

**Iran** has been subject to one of the most stringent American sanctions regimes in the world for decades. These sanctions already cover virtually the entire Iranian economy. Adding **13 new entities** linked to **Shahed** drones therefore reinforces an existing framework rather than constituting a rupture. The question is whether this marginal tightening will have a measurable effect on **Tehran**'s capacity to produce and deliver drones to **Russia**.

Experts are divided. Some believe the **IRGC** has developed sufficiently diversified supply circuits to absorb new sanctions. Others think that targeting specific entities involved in the production of critical components can create significant bottlenecks. What all agree on: the effect will not be immediate, and it will not alone be enough to stop drone deliveries. It must form part of a broader strategy.

*Iran is a puzzle for Western policy. Subject to the most severe sanctions for forty years, it continues to develop an impressive military arsenal and to support destabilization networks throughout the region. This says something about the limits of sanctions alone — and about the need for a more complex engagement strategy toward Tehran. I have no miracle solution, but ignoring this reality would be intellectually dishonest.*

## China in the Equation: Industrial Complicity

### Chinese components in Iranian drones

The presence of **Chinese** entities in the **June 11, 2026** sanctions is particularly significant. Journalistic investigations and Western government reports have documented the presence of Chinese electronic components in **Shahed** drones recovered in **Ukraine**. Chips, sensors, communication components — all Chinese-made or incorporating elements of the Chinese supply chain — have been identified in the wreckage of shot-down drones.

**China** has systematically denied any deliberate supply of military equipment to **Russia**. It maintains that exports of electronic components are normal commercial transactions and that their end use is the responsibility of the buyers. This line of defense grows less convincing as evidence accumulates and supply chain investigations trace back to specific Chinese suppliers.

### Beijing between pragmatism and complicity

**Beijing**'s policy toward the war in **Ukraine** is an example of cynical geopolitical calculation. **China** derives considerable economic advantages from the situation: it buys Russian oil at a discount, it sells manufactured goods to **Russia** that sanctions deprive of other sources, and it maintains a strategic partnership with **Moscow** that strengthens its negotiating position vis-à-vis **Washington**. All this without firing a single shot.

**Beijing**'s response to accusations of industrial support to **Russia** has been to deny the existence of the problem while offering rhetorical assurances about peace — notably via a **12-point peace plan** largely ignored by both belligerents. Sanctions against specific Chinese entities create additional pressure on **Beijing** to discipline its own exporters, but their effect on **Beijing**'s macroeconomic policy is limited. **Xi Jinping** will continue to advance under cover.

*China is the most difficult actor to manage in this crisis. Too large to be sanctioned globally without triggering an economic war devastating for everyone, too deeply involved to be ignored. Targeted sanctions on specific entities are the only realistic approach — imperfect, frustrating, but necessary. Xi Jinping must understand that there is a cost to industrial complicity.*

## Belarus: A Link in a Chain of Support

### Lukashenko, Putin's satellite

**Alexander Lukashenko** has tied the fate of **Belarus** to that of **Putin** since the suppression of the popular uprising of **2020**. Belarusian territory served as a launch platform for some of the first Russian strikes on **Ukraine** in **2022**. Since then, **Belarus** has acted as a logistical and military facilitator of the Russian war effort — even as **Lukashenko** has so far avoided direct military engagement to preserve a minimal margin of maneuver.

The presence of **Belarusian** entities in the **June 11** sanctions for support to the **IRGC** reveals the extent of cooperation between **Minsk** and the military support network for **Russia**. **Belarus** is not merely a military accomplice — it is also a node in the sanctions circumvention chains, facilitating technology transfers and commercial flows that direct sanctions against **Russia** seek to block.

### Sanctions on Belarus: accumulating pressure

**Belarus** has been subject to Western sanctions since **2020**, intensified since the **2022** invasion. These sanctions have had significant effects on the Belarusian economy — already fragile and dependent on Russian subsidies. The Belarusian population is paying the price of a regime that has isolated itself from **Europe** by political choice. The Belarusian opposition in exile continues to advocate for enhanced international support for the domestic democratic resistance.

The paradox of **Belarus** is that the more sanctions accumulate, the more **Lukashenko** becomes economically dependent on **Russia** — which reinforces his alignment with **Moscow** rather than moving him away from it. This dynamic is well known to sanctions theorists: total isolation can reinforce dependence on a patron rather than creating the conditions for political change. There is no simple answer to this dilemma.

*Belarus concerns me in a particular way. It is a country where a majority of the population said no to Lukashenko in 2020 — and was suppressed with documented brutality. These courageous citizens deserve our moral and political support. Sanctions against the regime must not translate into abandoning the Belarusian people to their fate. The distinction between a people and their dictator must be at the heart of our policy.*

## The Axis of Upheaval: An Alliance of Circumstance

### Russia, Iran, North Korea, China: converging interests

The notion of the **"Axis of Upheaval"** — a term used by certain analysts to describe the strategic convergence between **Russia**, **Iran**, **North Korea**, and **China** — must be used with nuance. This is not a formalized alliance like **NATO**. It is a convergence of situational interests: all these states share an interest in weakening the Western-dominated liberal international order, but their long-term objectives differ and could come into conflict.

What the **June 11, 2026** sanctions package reveals is that this convergence is sufficiently deep to produce concrete military-industrial cooperations. Components circulate between **Beijing**, **Tehran**, **Pyongyang**, and **Moscow** via opaque but documented networks. These networks constitute a sanctions circumvention infrastructure with real operational effectiveness. Dismantling it requires close coordination among Western intelligence services and customs authorities.

### North Korea in the equation

**North Korea** is the fourth member of this de facto axis. Reports from the United Nations and South Korean intelligence services have documented the delivery of millions of **152 mm** and **155 mm** artillery shells to **Russia**, in exchange for space technology, military equipment, and likely food aid. The presence of North Korean soldiers on Russian and Ukrainian territory — confirmed by the intelligence services of several Western countries — represents a qualitative escalation of this cooperation.

Sanctions against entities in the Russia-North Korea axis have been intensified in **2026**, but their effect is limited by the fact that **North Korea** is already the most sanctioned economy in the world. The country has developed survival capabilities in a total sanctions environment over decades. The marginal effect of new sanctions is therefore modest — which confirms that beyond economic instruments, a broader diplomatic and security response is necessary.

*The presence of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine is one of the gravest alarm signals of this war. Pyongyang is sending its men to be killed in order to test equipment and tactics under real conditions — and to repay its debts to Moscow. This militarization of Russia-DPRK cooperation threatens not only Ukraine but the entire security architecture of the Indo-Pacific.*

## OFAC and Sanctions Law: The American Mechanism

### How Washington's sanctions machine works

The **Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)** of the US Treasury is the institution responsible for administering and enforcing **American** economic and commercial sanctions programs. Its power is considerable: listing an entity on the **SDN (Specially Designated Nationals)** list effectively freezes all that entity's American assets and prohibits American nationals from doing business with it. By extension, foreign companies that want to maintain access to American markets generally avoid dealing with listed entities.

For the **June 11, 2026** sanctions package, **OFAC** acted in coordination with the **US State Department** and the **US Department of Commerce**. This inter-agency coordination is essential to maximize the effectiveness of sanctions and to prevent entities listed in one registry from continuing to operate through other American channels. Synchronization with European and British allies further reinforces the impact.

### Legal limits and diplomatic resistance

Applying American sanctions against Chinese entities is politically sensitive in a context of commercial and diplomatic tensions between **Washington** and **Beijing**. **China** has responded to sanctions against its companies with official diplomatic protests and threats of commercial retaliation. These frictions add to existing tensions over **Taiwan**, trade, and technology.

The American administration under **Trump** must navigate this complex environment: maintaining pressure on **Beijing** for its complicity in the Russian war effort, while managing a crucial commercial relationship with the world's second-largest economy. There is no clean solution to this dilemma. Targeted sanctions policy is a compromise — imperfect but workable — between inaction and total confrontation.

*American sanctions policy toward China seems to me correctly calibrated — targeted, documented, coordinated with allies. What I would like to see more of is sustained parallel diplomatic pressure on Beijing: high-level conversations, precise commitments, clear red lines. Sanctions without dialogue are a confrontational policy that risks creating a clash that no one actually wants.*

## Ukraine Under Drones: Documented Humanitarian Impact

### Millions of Ukrainians in the dark

The humanitarian impact of **Shahed** drone strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure is documented by numerous international organizations — **OCHA**, **UNICEF**, **ICRC**. These systematic strikes deprive millions of Ukrainian civilians of electricity, hot water, and heat for extended periods. During winter **2025-2026**, certain Ukrainian regions experienced electricity outages of up to **18 hours per day**.

These strikes are not collateral damage — they are deliberate. The declared objective of Russian strategy is to break the resilience of the Ukrainian population by making daily life unbearable. This is a strategy of economic terror that deliberately violates the rules of international humanitarian law protecting civilian infrastructure. The **International Criminal Court** has opened investigations into these practices — investigations that will feed the future war crimes dossier against Russian commanders.

### Ukrainian air defense: responding to drone swarms

Facing the **Shahed** threat, **Ukraine** has developed and received increasingly sophisticated air defense systems. Western systems such as **NASAMS**, **SAMP-T**, and hundreds of shorter-range anti-aircraft guns now form a layered defense that shoots down a growing proportion of launched drones. Official Ukrainian data indicates interception rates exceeding **70%** on certain strike sequences.

But even at these interception rates, the sheer volume of drones launched by **Russia** guarantees that dozens reach their targets with each wave. And each drone shot down represents a cost: interceptor missiles that cost far more than the drone they destroy. This is the economic equation of the drone war that **Russia** deliberately exploits — and that is why drying up the source of drones, by sanctioning their components and suppliers, is more efficient than merely intercepting them.

*I think about those Ukrainian families sleeping in the cold, without electricity, under the permanent threat of a drone strike. These are not abstract statistics. They are millions of ordinary people whose lives have been destroyed by one man's decision to launch an imperial war. Every sanction against every Shahed supplier is a concrete act of solidarity with those families.*

## The Diplomatic Dimension: Pressure on Iran Beyond Sanctions

### Nuclear negotiations and support for Russia: an unresolved tension

American policy toward **Iran** is complicated by the coexistence of two contradictory agendas: sanctions for support to **Russia** in **Ukraine**, and attempts at negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program. These two agendas interfere with each other. **Iran** uses its support for **Russia** as a negotiating lever in nuclear discussions. The West attempts to dissociate them — with limited success.

This tension illustrates a broader challenge: in a multipolar world where crises proliferate, American diplomatic tools are stretched across multiple fronts simultaneously. Managing the Ukrainian crisis, maintaining pressure on **Iran**, containing **China**, monitoring **North Korea** — all this with constrained diplomatic and budgetary resources, in a turbulent American political context. There is no perfect response to this multiplication of challenges.

### The signal sent to other potential Russian allies

Beyond the direct effect on the **13 sanctioned entities**, the **June 11** package sends a signal to all actors who might consider supporting the Russian war effort. That signal says: the **West** monitors supply networks, identifies facilitators, and acts against them regardless of their nationality. For companies or states that maintain interests in the Western-dominated international economic system, this signal has practical resonance.

Countries like **Turkey**, the **United Arab Emirates**, or certain states in **Central Asia** that have facilitated sanctions circumvention — sometimes without being fully aware of it, sometimes deliberately — receive this message. The use of secondary sanctions to punish facilitators changes the cost-benefit calculation for these actors. This is a deterrent effect that, even if imperfect, contributes to the overall effectiveness of the framework.

*The war is also being fought in the boardrooms of companies in Turkey, the UAE, and Singapore, who are asking whether they can continue dealing with sanctioned Russian entities. Secondary sanctions answer them: no, and here is the price to pay if you try anyway. This is coercive economic diplomacy — and it is necessary.*

## The Global Context: Drones in Modern Warfare

### A military revolution underway

The war in **Ukraine** has accelerated a revolution in the military use of drones that is redefining the nature of modern armed conflict. **Kamikaze drones** like the **Shahed**, reconnaissance drones, guided attack drones — all these systems have demonstrated an effectiveness and versatility that are transforming military doctrine worldwide. Every army in the world is watching this conflict and adjusting its preparations accordingly.

For the **West**, this revolution cuts both ways: Ukrainian drones have shown that even a relatively less well-equipped army can inflict significant losses on a numerically superior military power. But Iranian drones have also shown that a power under sanctions can develop and export effective asymmetric weapons at scale. The response to this threat requires both technical countermeasures and efforts to drain the supply chains.

### The implications for European defense

The lessons of the drone war in **Ukraine** are redefining acquisition policy and defense doctrine across **Europe**. European armies are investing massively in short and medium-range air defense systems, drone detection and jamming systems, and their own attack drone capabilities. The power demonstration that the war in **Ukraine** constitutes is accelerating a modernization that would have taken decades in peacetime.

Sanctions against **Shahed** suppliers fit within this broader response. By seeking to drain the source of drones used against **Ukraine**, the **United States** and its allies are not only defending **Kyiv** — they are also protecting their own future security. Capabilities developed by **Iran** and **Russia** in this conflict could be used against Western targets in a future conflict. Acting now is also preventing that risk.

*Drone warfare is the new military reality of the 21st century. Ukraine has learned this at its cost and to its advantage simultaneously. Europe has four years of practical lessons to integrate — and it is doing so, even if the pace is sometimes too slow. Sanctions against Shahed suppliers are not just solidarity with Ukraine: they are collective preventive self-defense.*

## Clandestine Networks: The War in the Chambers of Commerce

### How components reach the IRGC

Investigations by investigative journalists and government agencies have mapped part of the networks that allow electronic components to reach the **IRGC** despite sanctions. These networks use shell companies in low-oversight jurisdictions — often in **Central Asia**, the **UAE**, and **Turkey** — to purchase legal components and re-export them to **Iran** or directly to **Russia**. The sophistication of these networks has grown with experience and sanctions pressure.

Dismantling these networks is intensive intelligence work, costly in resources and time. Each dismantled network is replaced by a new one, using new shell companies, new payment channels, new logistics routes. This is a permanent race between Western export control teams and circumvention networks. The **June 11** sanctions target specific entities identified at the end of this investigative work.

### International anti-circumvention cooperation

Facing the growing sophistication of circumvention networks, the **United States**, the **EU**, the **United Kingdom**, and their allies have developed closer cooperation mechanisms: sharing intelligence on suspect entities, harmonizing export control lists, setting up dedicated working groups within the **G7** framework. This international coordination is indispensable — a circumvention network passing through multiple jurisdictions can only be dismantled if those jurisdictions cooperate.

**Korea**, **Japan**, **Singapore**, and other countries in the region have joined some of these cooperation mechanisms, aware that circumvention networks transiting through their territory expose them to secondary sanctions and reputational damage. This gradual expansion of the anti-circumvention coalition is a positive development whose impact will be felt in the medium term.

*The work of dismantling circumvention networks is among the least glamorous of the international response to the war in Ukraine. No parades, no speeches — just discreet investigators tracing financial flows and obscure supply chains. This is essential work. Those who do it deserve as much recognition as the generals on the front line.*

## Kyiv's Response to the Sanctions: Recognition and Expectations

### Zelensky welcomes the sanctions package

**Zelensky** and his government have systematically welcomed each new sanctions package as an important contribution to the Ukrainian war effort. The **June 11, 2026** sanctions were received positively in **Kyiv**, with statements from the **Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs** welcoming American action against Russian military suppliers. This reaction is both sincere and strategic: it encourages allies to continue and strengthen their action.

But **Kyiv** is also asking for more. Ukrainian officials insist that sanctions be accompanied by additional weapons deliveries, notably long-range air defense systems capable of intercepting drones and missiles at high altitude. Sanctions reduce enemy capabilities over the long term; weapons respond to the immediate threat. Both are necessary and complement each other.

### What Ukraine is still waiting for from the West

Ukraine's list of requests to the West is long and constantly updated. Air defense systems, artillery ammunition, demining equipment, training, reconstruction financing, support for the accession process to the **EU** and **NATO**, pressure on **Russia**'s allies. Sanctions against drone suppliers represent only one aspect of this. **Zelensky** knows this and says it unambiguously: he is not asking the West to fight in Ukraine's place, but to give Ukraine all the means to fight for itself.

This request is legitimate and realistic. **Ukraine** has proven that it knows how to use the resources provided to it with remarkable effectiveness. Every weapon delivered, every sanction put in place, every circumvention network dismantled contributes to Ukrainian resilience. The challenge for the West is to maintain this support over time — a duration that neither **Zelensky** nor his allies can predict with certainty.

*Zelensky is not asking for the impossible. He is asking for weapons that exist, sanctions that are already used against others, financial support that the Western economy can absorb. This is not an excessive demand — it is a demand proportionate to the stakes. And the stakes are the freedom of an entire people. I do not see how anyone can say no to that.*

## Conclusion: Western Solidarity as the Response to the Axis of Upheaval

### A sanctions package among others, but symbolically powerful

The **June 11, 2026** sanctions against entities in **Iran**, **Belarus**, and **China** represent one more step in the Western response to the **Axis of Upheaval**'s strategy. They will not on their own change the course of the war. But they contribute to a cumulative pressure framework that, combined with military and diplomatic support for **Ukraine**, constitutes the most coherent strategy available for defending Western values and interests in this conflict.

The logic of targeting three of the four axis members in a single decision is also a powerful political signal: **Washington** acknowledges that the war in **Ukraine** is a multi-actor conflict, and that an effective response must be as well. This is strategic maturity — a quality that the West has sometimes struggled to demonstrate in previous crises.

### What the future holds for these sanctions

Sanctions against Iranian drone suppliers are not an end in themselves — they are a step in a dynamic process. **Russia** and its partners will adapt, find new suppliers, new routes, new substitute components. The West will have to adapt in turn, identify new vulnerabilities, target new facilitators. This is a permanent economic war — slow, frustrating, but real in its cumulative effects.

What is certain is that these sanctions fit within a long-term strategy aimed at making the cost of the war in **Ukraine** — for **Moscow** and its allies — progressively unbearable. The combination of Ukrainian military resistance, Western economic sanctions, and international diplomatic pressure constitutes the best chance of a negotiated settlement on terms acceptable to **Ukraine**. There is no credible alternative to this strategy.

*I will close this analytical testimony with what seems to me the central lesson: the war in Ukraine has revealed that the West can maintain a sustained coalition against prolonged adversity — something Putin hoped was impossible. We have proven him wrong. Maintaining this demonstration over time is our collective obligation toward the Ukrainian people and toward ourselves.*

## The Memory of Sanctions: Learning for the Future

### The lessons of this sanctions cycle

After four years of economic warfare against **Russia**, Western decision-makers are accumulating valuable expertise on the strengths and limits of modern sanctions. This expertise has a value that extends beyond the Ukrainian conflict: it will inform responses to future crises, whether in the **Indo-Pacific**, the **Middle East**, or elsewhere. Specialized institutions like the American **OFAC**, the European **DG GROW** responsible for sanctions, or the export control teams of **EU** member states have developed analytical and operational capabilities without precedent.

These lessons relate notably to the necessity of rapid action at the start of a conflict to maximize the effect of sanctions, to the crucial importance of international coordination to prevent circumvention, and to the necessity of accompanying economic sanctions with clear communication to allied populations about their objectives and effects. Lessons that are costly to acquire — in human lives and economic suffering — but that constitute lasting strategic capital.

### Preparing for peace: what to do with sanctions tomorrow

The question of what will be done with sanctions at the moment of peace is often neglected in current debates. Yet their removal will have to be governed by precise and verifiable conditions — troop withdrawal, reparations commitments, non-recurrence guarantees — to prevent a premature relaxation from being interpreted by **Moscow** as absolution. The gradual lifting of sanctions will have to be proportional to the concrete progress of Russian commitments.

For the entities in **Iran**, **Belarus**, and **China** targeted in the **June 11** package, the question is different: their removal from the list does not depend directly on peace in **Ukraine**, but on the demonstrated cessation of their support activities to the **IRGC**. This is a process that will have to be managed over the long term, entity by entity, with rigorous verification. The bureaucracy of sanctions is complex — but it is this very complexity that makes it difficult to circumvent.

*We talk a lot about the current war and sanctions. We talk less about the peace and what we will do with sanctions when it comes. This subject deserves to be prepared now. A disorderly lifting of sanctions, too rapid or too conditional, could erase years of effort. Managing the exit from the crisis is as important as managing the crisis itself.*

## Final Conclusion: Bearing Witness to Complexity, Not Simplifying the Stakes

### What this testimony can and cannot do

This article is an analytical testimony — not from someone who was on the ground (I was not), but from an observer who compiles sources, cross-references data, and attempts to make sense of complex events. The **June 11, 2026** sanctions cannot be understood in isolation: they fit within a web of diplomatic, economic, and military decisions that form the Western response to Russian aggression. I have tried to restore this web in all its complexity.

What I can guarantee: I have verified every fact advanced, cited my sources, flagged my uncertainties, and invented neither testimony nor quotation. What I cannot guarantee: that this complexity will necessarily produce the right outcome for **Ukraine**. International politics is never certain. But rigorous and honest thinking is the best compass available for navigating this uncertainty.

### What Ukraine is teaching the world

In four years, **Ukraine** has taught the world several essential truths: that sovereignty is worth defending to the end, that resistance is possible even against a militarily superior power, that democracy can survive war if it is supported, and that the West can maintain its strategic coherence over time if it is determined to do so. These lessons have a universal value that extends well beyond the geographic framework of **Eastern Europe**.

The **June 11, 2026** sanctions against Iranian drone suppliers are one small piece of a large puzzle. But every piece counts. Every sanction, every weapons delivery, every diplomatic commitment honored is an element of the larger picture of a West that defends — imperfectly but resolutely — the international order it helped build. This picture is not yet complete. Its completion depends on all of us.

*I sign this testimony with the deep conviction that what we do — analyze, explain, bear witness — matters. The information war is real. Clarity is a form of resistance. And Ukraine deserves lucid witnesses as much as armed allies.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [US sanctions 13 entities in Iran, Belarus, China — Euromaidanpress, June 11, 2026](https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/06/11/us-sanctions-13-iran-belarus-china-entities-supplying-irans-irgc-thats-three-of-four-axis-of-upheaval-states/)

- [OFAC sanctions program against Russian harmful foreign activities — US Treasury/OFAC](https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/russian-harmful-foreign-activities-sanctions)

- [Iranian drones in Ukraine, Russia, and beyond — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty](https://www.rferl.org/amp/drones-iran-ukraine-russia-houthis-hezbollah/33772693.html)

### Secondary sources

- [Analysis of sanctions against Russian drone suppliers — Interfax Ukraine, 2026](https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/1177238.html)

- [China denies NATO claims of supporting Russia — News Ukraine RBC, 2026](https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/china-denies-nato-claims-of-supporting-russia-1781788344.html)

- [Korean Peninsula update — Institute for the Study of War, June 2026](https://understandingwar.org/research/china-taiwan/korean-peninsula-update-june-2-2026/)

---

Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/temoignage-l-axe-du-desordre-frappe-les-sanctions-americaines-contre-l-iran-la-c