Russian missiles and UAVs contain parts from over 20 countries

Russia's missiles and drones, which it uses to attack Ukraine on a regular basis, comprise components from more than 20 countries.

Source: Nataliia Nestor, Deputy Director of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, in a comment to Ukrinform

Quote: "Our analysts discovered foreign components in Russian missiles used to attack Ukraine. Russian missiles and drones, which are used for daily strikes on Ukraine's peaceful cities and towns, contain foreign components manufactured in over 20 countries. These include China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United States, Canada, and Iran, among others."

Details: Nestor also noted that throughout 2023, the institute's experts conducted about 30,000 studies related to the facts of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.

According to her, the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise experts study almost all types of missiles Russia uses to attack Ukraine: Iskander, Kinzhal, Kalibr, Kh-101, Kh-55, Kh-59, etc. In addition, attack drones such as Shahed-136 and Shahed-121, and reconnaissance drones Kartograf, Orlan-10 and Supercam are researched as well.

Quote: "For example, in Shaheds, there are servos, processors, switches, and generators from the United States, contact tips from Iran, spark plugs and indicators from China, electric fuel pumps from Germany and the United Kingdom, seals from Taiwan, Schottky modules from South Korea, and so on. The Kinzhal missiles contain sensors from Spain, buffers, diodes, transceivers, converters from the United States, flash memory from Taiwan, filters from Japan, relays from Germany, converters from Switzerland, and so on. This means that all missiles and drones, as well as the primary high-tech component that allow them to function, are manufactured outside of Russia. We're talking about navigation, control, and guidance components, such as microcircuits, various chips, sensors, and motherboards."

Details: According to Nestor, most electronic components are not designed specifically for use in weapons. Dual-use parts are employed in a variety of applications, including washing machines, computer technologies, network connection, and so on. Such products are imported for some other purpose and eventually become components for weapons. Missiles of the same type do not share the same set of components in certain systems. They use whatever they could smuggle into the Russian Federation.

The expert also underlined that, despite the sanctions, microchips from Dutch companies NXP and Nexperia continue to enter Russia. They were discovered in UAVs such as Shahed-136, ZALA, PTERO, Eleron-3SV, Kub, Orlan-10, Takhion, Geran-2, as well as Kh-101 and Iskander missiles.

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