In a secret document sent by Ukraine to its Western allies, Kyiv appealed for long-range missiles to attack drone production sites in Russia, Iran, and Syria, the Guardian reported.
According to the Guardian, the Ukrainian document on drone production titled “Barrage deaths: report on Shahed-136/131 UAVs” was drafted with the help of the Ukrainian research institute and intelligence services.
A 47-page document submitted by the Ukrainian government to the G7 governments in August 2023 claims that Russia used kamikaze drones containing Western technology during its 600 raids on Ukrainian cities.
In the document obtained by the Guardian, the Ukrainian government suggested that the only way to stop Russian kamikaze drone attacks on Ukrainian cities would be to launch missile strikes on the drone production sites in Iran, Syria, and Russia.
“The above [attacks on drone production sites – ed.] may be carried out by the Ukrainian defence forces if partners provide the necessary means of destruction,” the document goes.
According to the document, 52 electrical components manufactured by Western companies were found in the Iranian-made Shahed-131 kamikaze drone and 57 Western components in the Shahed-136 kamikaze drone.
An Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drone has a flight range of 2,000 kilometers and a cruising speed of 180 kilometers per hour. Russia actively uses these drones to strike at critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Russia’s kamikaze drones have Western spare parts – Ukraine’s National Security Secretary
The document mentioned five European companies, including a Polish subsidiary of a British multinational company, as the original manufacturers of the identified components in Iranian-made kamikaze drones used by Russia to kill Ukrainians.
According to the Guardian, the manufacturers of drone components found in the downed drone models are headquartered in the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy, the UK, France, and Poland.
“A fuel pump manufactured in Poland by the German company Ti Automotive GmbH, of which the British multinational TI Fluid Systems is the parent company, was discovered in a Shahed-136, as well as a microcontroller with built-in flash memory and a very low-voltage drop regulator with inhibitor made by the Swiss firm STMicroelectronics, according to the paper [the Ukrainian government document – ed.],” the Guardian reported.
The Ukrainians also found an integrated circuit of a buffer network driver and a transistor made by International Rectifier (a subsidiary of the German firm Infineon Technologies AG), as well as a GPS tracker chip made by the Swiss company U-blox, in one of the downed Irainian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drones used by Russia, the Guardian reported.
Millions of Dutch chips end up in Russia despite EU sanctions – NOS/Nieuwsuur investigation
The document also revealed that Iran has diversified its drone production by using a Syrian factory and transferring some of it to Russia, where a new model of the Shahed-136 drone is being developed.
According to the Guardian, customs information obtained by Ukrainian intelligence showed that “almost all the imports of Western drone components to Iran “originated from Türkiye, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Costa Rica.”
Bart Groothuis, a member of the European parliament’s defense and security subcommittee, told the Guardian there had been insufficient coordination among the EU’s intelligence services to stop the misuse of Western components in Iranian killer drones.
According to the Guardian, the Ukrainian government document provided the most up-to-date analysis of the Russian drone tactics and drone production plans since the first use of Shahed kamikaze drones against Ukraine was recorded in the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv Oblast (eastern Ukraine) on 13 September 2022.
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