If it were not for foreign microcircuits and boards, the Russian military would have to direct artillery fire, as during the Second World War, with the help of a paper map.

Andrii Rudyk, a representative of the Center for Research of Trophy and Prospective Weapons and Military Equipment of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated that almost all high-tech electronics in service with Russian artillerymen are imported.

“The biggest trouble is that if it were not for foreign components in the electronic equipment of artillery and missile equipment, the Russian troops would hardly be able to carry out such large-scale terrorist acts against the civilian population of Ukraine…” he said during the briefing.

According to Rudyk, as research has shown, the Russian military-industrial complex is not capable of producing anything more complex than resistors, transistor matrices and resonators.

He demonstrated a trophy sample of the “Baget-83” on-board electronic computing machine, which is used as part of the automated guidance and fire control system of the “Tornado-G” rocket salvo fire system.

“Here you can see chips made in the US and Switzerland. With the corresponding markings, serial numbers and other original data. provenance,” Rudyk said.

The representative of the General Staff also demonstrated on one of the slides the trophy command and observation vehicle 1B1003 of the 1B198 “Cannonada” complex of automated artillery fire control means.

“The electronics of this equipment are an example of the total dependence of the Russian military-industrial complex on foreign components,” he emphasized.

According to Rudyk, it is enough to consider the TECA computing unit, in which only the body is Russian, and all the “stuffing” is of American, Taiwanese, Dutch and German origin.

“Actually, if it weren’t for foreign microcircuits and boards, this complex simply wouldn’t exist, and the Russian military would have to direct artillery fire, like in World War II, using a paper map,” Rudyk said.

He noted that the presence of such a large number of foreign components in Russian electronics “does not mean the ineffectiveness of the sanctions policy of Western partners and Ukraine against the Russian Federation.”

“On the contrary. If it weren’t for the significant economic restrictions introduced against the Russian regime, Ukraine would have to face a significant number of surprises and discoveries in the form of foreign products and technologies at the service of the aggressor country,” said Rudyk.

The representative of the General Staff noted that Ukraine is grateful to partners for constant help and support in the direction of reducing Russia’s access to such technologies.

“However, Russia continues to receive microcircuits, chips, converters and other high-tech products important for committing new war crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine,” he stressed and emphasized the need to level the existing channels of such supplies.

Avoiding sanctions against Russia – what is known

As reported, in July 2022, the WSJ already wrote that China had increased exports to Russia of microchips and other electronic components and raw materials, which also have military applications after the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Chinese customs, in the first five months of 2022, shipments of microcircuits from China to Russia more than doubled to about $50 million compared to the same period a year earlier.

In February of this year, the WSJ reported again that, despite international sanctions and export controls, China is providing technology that the Russian military needs to wage war in Ukraine. In particular, Chinese state-owned defense companies have shipped navigation equipment, jamming technology and parts for jet fighters to Russian state-owned companies under sanctions.

Earlier in December, it became known that microchips produced by Western companies continue to be supplied to Russia. For this purpose, intermediary firms were created in Turkey and Hong Kong in March 2022, through which $777 million worth of chips were delivered to the Russian Federation. These are parts manufactured by Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices and Infineon.

Recently, NOS journalists found out that Russia continues to purchase microchips from manufacturers from the Netherlands. The scheme is implemented through a small group of Chinese companies that buy chips in the Netherlands and then resell them to Russia. It is claimed that Russia receives chips from two major Dutch manufacturers – NXP and Nexperia.