Ukraine’s intelligence monitors russian arms industry for sanction circumvention

Defense Intelligence spokesperson at Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, Vadym Skibitskyi, reported that Ukrainian intelligence analyzes cyberspace to understand the state of affairs in russia's defense-industrial complex and destroy the supply chains of components for russian military-industrial complexes.

"In today's world, cyberspace is a klondike of information. We analyze all the information to understand the state of affairs of the russian defense-industrial complex and what is critical for russia. For example, if it is a cruise missile or high-precision ammunition, such weapons are manufactured at more than one enterprise. Hundreds of plants and factories can be involved in the production, improvement, and various necessary services. And if we find at least one enterprise in the chain that produces an important part, without which the rocket will not fly, and we can ensure that there are no such supplies, this will be a real success," Skibitskyi emphasized.

He stressed that russia's circumvention of international sanctions is currently one of the critical problems because the ban on the supply of military and dual-use goods came into effect in 2022. Also, everything related to high-tech weapons is under sanctions. At the same time, the russians are learning to circumvent sanctions, so the issue of blocking these channels arises, Skibitskyi said.

"When we see that russia uses a lot of components from the world's leading countries, we take measures to stop the supply of critical components. Our specialized scientific research institute disassembles all trophy samples to the pin. We know all the secrets of trophy weapons, and there are never any small things here. We share this information with our partners to block the supply channels of components to russia," the intelligence representative said.

According to Skibitskyi, russia will simplify the production of weapons. This allows it to report on the amount produced, but it is not the same weapon in terms of characteristics. Simplification of production concerns, first of all, high-precision weapons, and as a result, it ceases to be high-precision, the intelligence representative says. 

According to him, if the russians do not have specific components of Western production, then they simplify the control system, the navigation system, etc. He added that it is a powerful rocket but does not meet its characteristics initially.

Earlier, it was reported that components of more than 30 Western companies were found in Iranian Shahed-136 drones that russia uses under the name Geran. 

This is reported by the investigators of the Trap Aggressor project, which investigated the details of the Iranian Shahed-136 drone in partnership with the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (IACC).

The Royal Institute of Joint Forces (RUSI) research found more than 450 components of the USA, Europe, and Asia production in the russian weapons seized in Ukraine.

During more than five months of the war, the Ukrainian military captured or took away intact or partially damaged russian weapons and equipment from the battlefield. Analysis of 27 units of these weapons and equipment – from cruise missiles to air defense systems – showed that they are based mainly on Western components.