Kiiw rescue workers inspect the wreckage of a Russian missile attack [사진 제공: 연합뉴스]
A Russian businessman was arrested in Germany on the 17th. His name is Yuri Orekhov. The U.S. government has been accused of sending semiconductor parts, which the U.S. government controls export control over, to a Russian defense company.
Two days later, the U.S. Justice Department charged Orehof and requested extradition from Germany.
The American semiconductors and microprocessor chips that Orekhov smuggled into Russia were actually used in Russian weapons. Ukrainian soldiers found Russian weapons captured on the battlefield containing US-made components.
Many Russian weapons depend on technology and components from the US and the West since the days of the Soviet Union.
The Royal Joint Military Research Institute (RUSI), a British security research institute, clearly showed Russia’s reliance on US components in a report dated August 8th.
RUSI investigated 27 Russian weapons and military equipment used since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. As a result, we identified at least 450 microelectronic components produced by companies in the United States, Europe and East Asia.
Of these 450 parts, 70%, or 318, were US-made. Others were 34 in Japan, 30 in Taiwan, 18 in Switzerland, 14 in the Netherlands, 10 in Germany, 6 in China, 6 in Korea, 5 in the UK, and 2 in Austria.
Foreign parts such as the US were used throughout the 9M727 cruise missile, Kh-101 cruise missile, drones, air defense systems, and communications equipment of the army. In the 9M727 and Kh-101 cruise missiles, 31 foreign parts were found each.
Since the beginning of the war, until recently, these missiles have attacked major Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kiiu, killing thousands of people.
Semiconductor chips from the US and the West also served as the ‘electronic brain’ of Russian missiles.
When a local security official in Ukraine dismantled an unexploded ordnance from a Russian cruise missile (9M727), a panel full of computer chips was found inside. Western components such as the United States and Germany were the core of Russian missiles that attack at low altitudes to avoid radar.
Russian surface-to-air missile attacking Ukrainian camp [사진 제공: 연합뉴스]
After Russia’s forced annexation of the Krum Peninsula in 2014, the United States tightened export controls on technology and components that could be used for military purposes. It must be approved by the government in advance. After the Russian invasion in February of this year, the export of military parts was completely banned.
Still, the export control parts came from Russian weapons.
According to a study by RUSI, about 18% of 450 foreign-made parts were subject to export controls. It means there was a hole in the surveillance network. It is likely that the final destination was a Russian defense company by manipulating export documents or exchanging goods in a third country.
These allegations have been consistently raised since the Ukrainian War by media such as the Washington Post in the US and Archyde.com in the UK.
The U.S. Department of Commerce and the FBI launched a joint investigation in June. The arrest of Orehof is one of those achievements. The US government is focusing on tightening export controls and closing Russia’s covert procurement chain.
Ukrainian firefighters extinguish fire after Russian missile attack [사진 제공: 연합뉴스]
The situation that Russia’s arsenal is running out of advanced missiles is being detected everywhere.
The BBC reported on the 18th that Russia appears to be having a hard time finding offensive weapons due to a lack of stock. The BBC, together with experts, analyzed the weapons used by the Russian military in the airstrikes after the explosion of the Krum Bridge on the 8th.
Instead of the precision-guided missiles that were thrown out at the beginning of the war, self-destruct drones were mobilized, and older missiles were repurposed.
Russia has been using Iranian self-destruct drones frequently this month. As there is a shortage of cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, there is an analysis that cheap self-destruct drones are being used.
On the 17th, citizens of Kiiu, the capital of Ukraine, were attacked by a self-destruct drone, killing four people. Two of the dead were young couples, whose wives were pregnant.
At least three cases of repurposed use of the S-300 surface-to-air missile developed by Russia during the former Soviet Union have been confirmed. It was used for intercepting aircraft and for attacking ground targets.
Douglas Berry, a senior research fellow at the British Institute for International Strategic Issues (IISS), said:
The New York Times also published a similar analysis on the 11th. Russia used conventional missiles without guidance in retaliatory air strikes in retaliation for the Krum Bridge explosion the day before, but experts said they suspect that precision missiles are running out.
At the beginning of the war, Russia used precision-guided missiles on a large scale against Ukraine.
The U.S. Department of Defense estimated that Russia fired about 600 missiles in the 11 days immediately after the start of the war in Ukraine.
It appears that the Russian army used a large amount of advanced firepower to initially gain momentum.
But expectations were completely wrong. The Russian army repeatedly retreated from the front, and the war became a long one.
Ukrainian President Zelensky said on the 24th that “Russia has fired 4,500 missiles at us in the past eight months and now the stock of missiles is shrinking.”
It appears that Russia’s imports of parts needed to manufacture advanced weapons have been blocked by Western sanctions. It is now being said that Russia only has old weapons and nuclear weapons.