US Electronic Components Still Turning Up in Russian Fighter Jets: Report
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Electronic components manufactured by U.S. companies are still turning up in Russian fighter jets via intermediary trade routes that experts say evade sanctions, a report has found.
According to the report, components used to make Russian weaponry and used in attacks against Ukraine originate from American companies, despite efforts by lawmakers to close this loophole.
The report was compiled by the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO) and media outlet Hunterbrook and shared exclusively with Newsweek.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of the companies that manufacture parts that end up in Russian fighter jets.
A Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet of the Russian Aerospace Forces is pictured in the course of Russia's war with Ukraine, at an unknown location in 2022.
A Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet of the Russian Aerospace Forces is pictured in the course of Russia's war with Ukraine, at an unknown location in 2022.
Newsweek contacted all companies mentioned in this article as well as the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security for comment.
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the U.S. and other Western countries imposed a range of economic and trade sanctions to squeeze Moscow's economy. Companies around the world also left the country to voice their moral opposition to the invasion and to exert economic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.
But curtailing the flow of goods in an age of globalization has proved tricky, and Moscow has since managed to bolster its war chest by acquiring Western microchips, semiconductors and other materials that can be used to manufacture weapons via third-party countries to evade U.S. sanctions and export controls.
Russia imported $20.3 billion in components associated with military equipment from March 2022 to December 2022, according to an analysis by the KSE Institute—a think tank at the Kyiv School of Economics—obtained by Newsweek. More than 60 percent of the components came from U.S. companies, the report found.
A 15-month probe by the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, found that 40 percent of 2,500 components analyzed in Russian weapons found on the Ukrainian battlefield were made by four U.S. companies: Analog Devices (ADI), Texas Instruments, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. The investigation, which wrapped up in December 2024, criticized these companies and the Department of Commerce, which administers export restrictions, for a lack of enforcement action.
The new report analyzed 10 Russian attacks from May 2023 to May 2024 that used SU-34 and SU-35 jets.
This included one attack on May 25, 2024, in a Kharkiv hypermarket that killed 19 civilians including six women and two children and injured 54 civilians, and another in October 2023 that killed a 63-year-old man and damaged 14 buildings in Kherson Oblast.
In total, the attacks analyzed led to 26 civilian deaths and 109 injuries.
In the SU-34 jets, NAKO found 227 components from 59 companies including Analog Device, Murata, Texas Instruments and Intel. Of these, 68 percent (154) came from the U.S.
In the SU-35 jets, NAKO found 891 components from 138 companies, with 62.3 percent (555) coming from the U.S. The companies included Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Murata, OnSemi, Intel and Vicor.
To verify the information, NAKO analyzed remnants of downed jets and found the components used in markets. They also used confidential sources.
"This is shameful," said Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. "American companies cannot be helping Russian companies build weapons that kill innocent Ukrainians," he told Newsweek, urging the Trump administration to impose sanctions to reduce the transfer of these technologies.
Anastasiya Donets, head of the Ukraine Legal Team at IPHR, said in a statement: "Western governments and tech manufacturers must confront the reality: current sanctions and export controls have failed to contain Russia's aggression. Governments must implement harsher sanctions against Russia, and manufacturers must introduce higher due diligence and supply chain control standards to prevent their products' diversion into Russia's weapons. Otherwise, declarations of continued support for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia's atrocities will remain just that, declarations. Falling short of timely and adequate action, they will only encourage protracted violence and atrocities worldwide. Moral imperative considerations aside, stopping Russia's war machine is cheaper than deploying boots on the ground next time Russia invades a neighbouring country. Overwhelming Western intelligence shows it will happen within 5 to 10 years. The time to act is now."
Mark Temnycky, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank's Eurasia Center, told Newsweek that trading with third-party actors had cleared a path for Russia. "The European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western actors maintain normal trade relations with most neutral countries across the globe," he said.
"This has created an opening for Russia as some countries in South America, Africa, and Asia serve as third-party intermediaries, re-exporting Western goods and services to Russia. Many restricted goods, including dual-use items, components and technology for weapons, and other forms of equipment, are being sent to Russia from these countries, providing Russia with the material and equipment it needs to continue its invasion of Ukraine. This is why Western components are still appearing in Russian weapons and equipment," Temnycky added.
"To stop this from happening, Western countries should impose sanctions on businesses that serve as third parties for Russia. Punishing these organizations will put additional pressure on their decision to aid Russia, and this will help bring a quicker end to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine," he concluded.
The government is moving to curtail the indirect supply chains that help build Russia's armory. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security published a list of 50 items including electrical parts that Russia uses to make weapons to warn industry leaders.
The presence of U.S. components in Russian weaponry is not the only way the U.S. has inadvertently supported Putin's war effort. In January, Newsweek revealed that American firms in Russia paid the country $1.2 billion in profit taxes in 2023. Russia's fossil fuel exports also generated $253.8 billion in revenue in the third year of its war in Ukraine, with some income flowing indirectly from Western countries.
The U.S. also imported $192 million in oil products from a refinery owned in part by a Russian company sanctioned by the U.S.
Amid this technological backdrop, the war prevails. U.S. President Donald Trump—who before assuming office claimed he could halt the war quickly—and Putin spoke on the phone Thursday as efforts to end the war continue. But Trump said he was "very disappointed" by the Putin call and that he did not think the Russian leader wanted to end the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump are due to speak on Friday.
The Pentagon has also announced that it is temporarily halting shipments of certain weapons to Ukraine, while Russia has intensified its military offensive, making significant territorial gains.
The war is the largest and deadliest in Europe since World War II.
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