Western parts in Russian drones: Are sanctions working? DW 10/11/2025

"Hardly a night goes by that Ukraine doesn't come under aerial attack from Russia. Last Sunday night alone, almost 500 drones and rockets were fired at targets in Ukraine. As it turned out, in many of those missiles, there were Western-made components. At the beginning of the week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed this out in a filmed message, noting that somehow high-tech componentry circuit boards, microchips, sensors, converters, semiconductors and control units had all made it to Russia, despite Western sanctions on the country."

""It should be noted that export controls on many of these goods were imposed right at the beginning of the major Russian offensive, in the spring of 2022," said Benjamin Hilgenstock, a senior economist at the Kyiv School of Economics, or KSE, who focuses on international sanctions on Russia. "These controls have been tightened to some extent [and] expanded to include other product groups, but essentially they have existed for the entire duration of this war.""

""Almost all of the components are actually on international sanctions lists and are not permitted to be exported to Russia. "If certain countries cut off the blatantly reprehensible schemes of supplying Russia with critical components for the production of missiles and drones, the Russian threat will become drastically smaller," the Ukrainian president argued in a message posted on social media site, X."

Ukraine faces near-nightly aerial attacks from Russia, including nights with hundreds of drones and rockets. Large numbers of Western-made circuit boards, microchips, sensors, converters, semiconductors and control units have been recovered in the wreckage of missiles and drones. As many as 100,000 internationally-sourced components were found after one attack, with origins traced to Germany, other European nations, the United States and Taiwan. Most of these components appear on international sanctions lists and are not permitted for export. Export controls were imposed in spring 2022 and have since been tightened, while the EU has issued multiple sanction packages and updated export restrictions.

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