Ukraine traces Western tech in Russian “Parody” drones downed in Moldova

Kyiv discovered Western components in the Russian “Parody” decoy drones after they crashed in Moldovan territory overnight, according to Ukrainian Intelligence. Two drones ended up there after a massive Russian assault on Ukraine over the weekend, involving a record 145 drones.

The discovery underscores persistent issues in sanctions enforcement, as thousands of companies still supply Russia with critical Western technology via intermediaries. Russia uses its missiles and drones in near-daily attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, straining Ukraine’s air defense resources.

A collection of US-manufactured components used in Russian drones and North Korean cruise missiles. Credit: War Sanctions.

“In October alone, Russia launched over 2,000 drones against Ukraine, with roughly half being decoy drones designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses,” reads the GUR’s statement.

The GUR published a list of eleven imported pieces from four countries (United States, Switzerland, Taiwan, and China) which allow the drone to mimic the signal feature of an Iranian-designed Shahed-136 or its Russian copy, the Geran-2. Ukrainian Intelligence Services updates and maintains this database of Russian-employed Western technology based on evidence collected in the field. In this instance, they provided photographic evidence of the insides of the wooden decoy drone on their official page.

Russian Parody drones in pieces — A look inside at the components that allow the drone to mimic the signature of Shahed and Geran variant kamikaze drones. Credit: GUR.

Hong Kong is the seat for hundreds of corporations, which exist only as a front for the buying and selling of heavily regulated technologies for pariah states like Russia and North Korea. Militarnyi’s reporting indicates that many corporations avoid sanctions through deceit, while other companies remain unsanctioned by Ukraine’s Western partners and can trade these technologies without consequence.

“According to an analysis of Russian customs data, corporate records, domain registrations, and sanctions data, Russia has received chips and other semiconductors worth more than $4 billion from over 6,000 companies.” writes Militarnyi.

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