Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that up to 95% of the critical foreign-made components found in the Russian weapons destroyed in Ukraine originated in Western countries. He called on Western governments, financial intelligence agencies, and companies to close the routes for critical weapons components to Russia. He wrote about this on his page on the social network "X", UNN reports.
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"The West should be serious about suppressing Russia's ability to produce weapons.
According to some reports, up to 95% of the critical foreign-made components found in the Russian weapons destroyed in Ukraine originated in Western countries. This is not a government action, but rather the activity of private companies, and the exports that come to Russia are not necessarily military goods, but also dual-use or civilian products and even household appliances. Whatever these goods are, they eventually arrive in Ukraine, are used to commit war crimes, kill people and destroy critical infrastructure," wrote Dmytro Kuleba.
He clarified that if Western countries were more decisive in their efforts to prevent the supply of dual-use goods to Russia bypassing sanctions, Ukraine would need less assistance from these countries to fight Russian aggression.
Ukraine would need less aid and lose fewer lives if all the gray schemes and loopholes to circumvent sanctions were carefully monitored and completely closed. The West has the best financial intelligence, experts, and specialized agencies capable of tracking down such schemes and disrupting them.
"The lion's share of the responsibility lies with the companies themselves: they must control the end users of the goods they export and ensure that their parts do not end up in weapons that kill people. Disrupting the supply of these parts to Russia will require a large-scale concerted effort by the private and public sectors. But it will save the lives of many civilians in Ukraine and disrupt Putin's military machine," summarized the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.
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Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, said that Russians are looking for ways to hide the fact that they use foreign components in the weapons they use to attack Ukraine on a daily basis.
He noted that the Russians, in particular, erase the name of the manufacturer or the number by which it can be identified. He added that foreign partners are constantly asking which countries the components are from in order to take appropriate measures.
"They take this painfully. They are interested in which company, whose production, when the component was produced, because in many cases the Russians erase the numbers, erase the manufacturers. And we have to use special methods that we have to conduct examinations," Ruvin said.
At the same time, he clarified that sanctions against Russia are in effect, but supplies are carried out through countries that have not joined the sanctions regime.
"The sanctions are in effect. They apply only to the purchase of these components by the Russian Federation or its satellites. But there are third and fourth countries from which it is also possible to supply, and this is probably what is being done," Ruvin added.