The United States on Wednesday sanctioned companies from Myanmar and Russia for supporting Myanmar’s regime.
The US Department of Commerce said it sanctioned Yangon-based Sky Aviator Company Ltd and Synpex Shwe Company Ltd for helping to arm the junta, enabling attacks on the civilian population.
The Justice for Myanmar (JFM) rights group reported in late 2023 that Sky Aviator, owned by Kyaw Min Oo who faces UK sanctions, imported equipment from Russia and Ukraine, including engines and parts for YAK-130 fighter jets.
The regime uses the YAK 130 for indiscriminate airstrikes across Myanmar, including in the aerial massacre of Pazigyi village in Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region, which killed at least 168 people, the JFM said.
It also accused Heli Eagle, owned by Kyaw Min Oo’s brother Myo Min Oo, of supplying the regime.
JFM said Synpex Shwe had supplied the regime with helicopter parts from Sins Avia Trading House (also known as CNS Aviation) since the 2021 coup.
The US department also sanctioned two Russian companies, Aviasnab LLC and Joint Stock Company Gorizont, for supplying Myanmar’s regime with weaponry and parts.
JFM said in 2022 that Joint Stock shipped parts for its Camcopter S-100 drone to Miya Win International Limited, a regime arms broker.
Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica in August reported that since seizing power, the regime had conducted 3,293 airstrikes against civilian targets, killing 1,749 people and injuring 2,453 others. The airstrikes destroyed 248 religious buildings, 142 schools and 55 hospitals, the independent research group said.
Last October – in a coordinated effort against the regime – the European Union, United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on six individuals, including cronies and militia leaders, as well as on eight enterprises supplying funds, arms, equipment and jet fuel to the junta.
