Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Russian weapons contained components from allied countries including Britain, Germany, and the US as he called for more ‘effective’ sanctions on Russia
Russian missiles and drones used in Sunday’s deadly strikes on Ukraine were found to contain British microcomputers alongside more than 100,000 foreign-made parts, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
In a call for further “effective” sanctions on Russia, the Ukrainian president pointed out parts in the Russian weapons which came from allied countries including Germany, Japan and the US.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said the government had been trying to crack down on UK businesses whose products continued to make their way into Russian weapons.
“We take reports of goods from UK companies being found in Russian weaponry incredibly seriously,” a DBT spokesperson said.
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They added that the government had “banned the export of thousands of goods to Russia including every battlefield item Ukraine has brought to our attention,” in a move they said was part of “the most severe package of sanctions”.
Businesses and individuals who don’t follow the sanctions risk “large financial penalties or criminal prosecution”, they said. The department said over £20bn ($26.9bn) of UK business with Russia is now under sanctions.
Writing on X, Zelensky said “microcomputers for drone flight control are produced in the United Kingdom “.
He added it was “crucial to shut down every scheme that circumvents sanctions”, and said Ukraine’s allies “already possess the detailed data on each company and each product” which was still in use by Russia.
He said other countries such as China, Taiwan and the Netherlands were responsible for making other components found in Russian weapons.
Russia launched 549 missiles and drones overnight on Sunday, where four members of one family, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed by strikes in the village of Lapaivka.
Despite a crushing barrage of sanctions on Russia since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Russia’s economy has adapted and the country has so-far avoided financial collapse.
Hugely beefed-up military spending has replaced jobs lost to sanctioned industries resulting in continued growth. Russian energy exports have also found new buyers in China and India after European countries cut trade ties with the Kremlin.