Russian missile that destroyed Okhmatdyt consisted of Western components – FT

The Russian Kh-101 missile that destroyed Kyiv's Okhmatdyt children's hospital contained Western-made parts, experts and Ukrainian officials say, which indicates the Kremlin's success in circumventing sanctions.

Source:  Financial Times

Details: A Kh-101 cruise missile was captured on camera seconds before it hit an oncology hospital on 8 July. The Kh-101 is one of Russia's most advanced cruise missiles and is crucial to intensifying its campaign of air strikes on Ukraine.

Russia is producing almost eight times as many Kh-101s as it did before the full-scale invasion in 2022, and is still depending on Western-made, and especially US-made, components.

"Western technology is allowing them to build these smarter missiles, which allow their terror attacks to get past our struggling air defences," said Olena Bilousova, a leading sanctions researcher at the KSE Institute in Kyiv.

Despite the sanctions against Russia cutting off its supply of some advanced components, the Kremlin's defence sector has been using microprocessors and other advanced technologies not intended for military use. A Ukrainian analysis of Kh-101 missile launched in January, which found 16 pieces of Western-made electronics inside the missile, confirmed this shift.

According to the analysis, among the Kh-101’s Western-made components two were manufactured by Swiss company STMicroelectronics, headquartered in Switzerland, while the rest were made by American chip manufacturers, including Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, and Intel.

All the goods are intended mainly for civilian uses, and some are quite old.

An analysis of Russian documents conducted by the Financial Times shows that all Russian companies in 2023 had to do to obtain the parts used in the Kh-101 analysed in January was to buy them on the open market and import them through China.

Although Russian documents indicate that the parts were manufactured by Western manufacturers, all of them are listed as manufactured in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan or Thailand.

The analysis of a single missile wreckage probably underestimates the degree of Russia's dependence on foreign production. According to a study by the Office of the President of Ukraine provided to the FT, an intact Kh-101 can contain more than 50 different foreign-made parts.

Background:

• On the morning of 8 July, Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russia had scrambled Tu-95 bombers from the Olenya airfield.
• Later, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that the Russians had launched missiles and guided aerial bombs on Ukraine, causing an air-raid warning to be issued across the country. Explosions rocked Kyiv and a number of other cities.
• As a result of the Russian missile attack on 8 July, the Okhmatdyt National Children's Specialised Hospital in Kyiv was hit, causing casualties.

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