How western microchips keep Russia's missiles and drones flying

Wion - World News
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Oct 29, 2026
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedRussia has launched over 100 ballistic missiles and advanced Geran-2 drones against Kyiv in two weeks. Analysis of a downed drone reveals that 76% of its components, including critical processing units, are sourced from U.S. firms like Texas Instruments. This highlights significant loopholes in Western sanctions that allow Russia to acquire essential electronics for its precision weaponry.
Kyiv is under relentless fire.
Ukraine says Russia fired over 100
ballistic missiles in just two weeks.
And the weapons raining down are built with American chips.
A Ukrainian analysis of Putin's newest killer drone
reveals 76% of its component comes from U.S. firms,
raising fresh questions about how Western electronics
reach Russian weapons despite sanctions.
Well, watch this next report to get more details on this.
Night after
night, the
same terror
repeats.
Ukrainians are enduring a nightmare.
Over the past fortnight alone,
Russia has unleashed more than 100 ballistic missiles
against the Ukrainian capital and surrounding regions.
Explosions shake apartment blocks.
Anti-aircraft batteries ignite the clouds.
Besides the missiles,
Russia has been increasingly using jet-powered drones.
Among them are the newer Geran-2 drones,
which fly higher and faster than the others.
This makes them significantly harder to intercept.
Ukraine has managed to down several of these drones using
its own interceptor drones and even fighter jets.
Now beneath the smoke of falling wreckage lies
an unsettling revelation.
Ukrainian engineers, by dismantling the flight computer
of a downed Russian Geran strike drone, found something startling.
According to reports, out of 105 identified micro-components driving
the lethal drone, 80 trace directly back to American tech companies.
That represents over 76% of the drone's brain.
More than 60 of those integrated circuits belong to Texas Instruments.
and its subsidiary alone
not a single critical processing unit inside the guidance cluster
bears a Russian mark this is no isolated
incident western intel reports have said
that russia's precision strikes depend almost entirely
on western tech pipelines according
to reports russia builds its formidable Iskander
and Kinzhal cruise missiles around american micro
electronics german industrial tools
and chinese routing pathways sanctions have made procurement
harder but they have not eliminated russia's access
to foreign electronics moscow has sought
alternative suppliers and import routes
while investigators have urged governments to close
the loopholes and pursue covert procurement
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