Ukraine has found tens of thousands of foreign parts, including Western-made, in the drones and missiles Russia fired in a weekend air attack on the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday.
AFP reports: “During the massive combined strike on Ukraine on the night of October 5, Russia used 549 weapon systems containing 102,785 foreign-made components,” Zelensky said on social media, referring to an attack in the early hours of Sunday.
Russia fired almost 500 drones and over 50 missiles at Ukraine that night, killing five people — including in the western Lviv region hundreds of kilometres from the front line — and damaging its energy infrastructure.
Zelensky said the parts of drones and missiles intercepted in the attack came “from companies in the United States, China and Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Netherlands.”
Converters, sensors and microcomputers were among the components found in the downed drones and missiles, Zelensky said.
“Microcontrollers for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are made in Switzerland, while microcomputers for drone flight control are produced in the United Kingdom,” he said, adding that Kyiv was preparing new sanctions on their manufacturers.
“We have communicated proposals to curb the supply schemes. Partners already possess the detailed data on each company and each product — they know what to target and how to respond,” Zelensky said.