Russian drones used in Ukraine may include Western parts, ambassador says

The Russian ambassador to Canada said in an inter‐ view with CBC News that Western electronics might be found in Russian drones being used in Ukraine.

"It is possible," said am‐ bassador Oleg Stepanov, when asked whether Canadi‐ an or other Western elec‐ tronics could be found in Russia's prized Orlan-10 drones. "But not necessarily."

The Orlan-10 is one of Russia's most critical and widely used aerial assets in its war against Ukraine. The Russian military uses them to spy on the frontline Ukrain‐ ian targets it attacks with ar‐ tillery barrages or missiles.

Last week, a CBC News in‐ vestigation revealed that the St. Petersburg-based Special Technology Center (STC), a Russian arms maker that produces the Orlan-10 drone, is covertly targeting Canadian technologies to include in its products.

Two Quebec-based tech companies, EXFO and Aimtec, both had their pro‐ ducts listed on STC supplier lists.

WATCH | Ambassador says Russian drones may in‐ clude Western parts:

Stepanov cast doubt on the STC revelations, charac‐ terizing them as Ukrainian disinformation.

"Well, the information that was reported by CBC News," he said, "comes from Ukraine."

Since launching its fullscale invasion in 2022, the Kremlin and the Russian mili‐ tary-industrial complex have faced relentless sanctions from Canada and its allies, in‐ hibiting their ability to pur‐ chase critical electronics for their weaponry.

But experts and Western leaders have warned that President Vladimir Putin's war machine has found ways to skirt those international efforts and obtain compo‐ nents like microchips through proxy companies and willing Chinese interme‐ diaries.

In a speech earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelen‐ skyy called out Western sanc‐ tions as ineffective.

"In every Russian missile, there are critical components from Western countries," he said. "Dozens of components in every missile. And it's true. It's a fact."

The Ukrainian military has time and again decon‐ structed recovered Russian weapons, finding Westernmade electronics inside mis‐ siles, drones, armoured vehi‐ cles and other tools in Russi‐ a's arsenal.

'Russia is taking over the drones'

According to a Ukrainian drone operator who goes by the call sign VTOL, Russia now has the edge on Ukraine when it comes to drone war‐ fare.

"Right now, Russia is tak‐ ing over the drones," said VTOL from a drone training school in an undisclosed lo‐ cation in western Ukraine.

VTOL previously served on the frontline but now trains other troops to use quad‐ copters, small drones used by platoons for real-time bat‐ tlefield awareness. CBC News has agreed not to use his real name to protect him from being singled out by Russia's military.

WATCH | How Western parts end up in Russian weapons:

"The beginning of the war, of course, we were ahead of them," he said. "But when Russia tested the drones ... they started to do it very masterfully and they put a lot of money into it."

Russian officials have re‐ peatedly denied their com‐ panies are sourcing Western goods for the country's war efforts. Stepanov said that for more secretive weapons like the Khinzal hypersonic missile, there is no chance the manufacturers would in‐ clude Western electronics.

"The most advanced parts of Russian defence-sector production have always used only Russian components," he said. "And I will never be‐ lieve that in a product like Khinzal, [or] any hypersonic weapon or nuclear capabili‐ ties, there are outsourced components."

But researchers have called that into question.

Olena Bilousova, a senior research analyst at the Kyiv School of Economics, co-au‐ thored a report earlier this year uncovering Western components inside Russian weapons, including Khinzal missiles and the Orlan-10.

Her team put the value of Western electronics used in Russian weapons at more than $4 billion.

"There is actually no Russ‐ ian weapon without Western technologies," said Bilousova.

She said that governmen‐ ts should extend sanctions to intermediary companies being used to skirt sanctions, but that responsibility also rests on companies like EXFO and Aimtec to track who's distributing their goods.

"They should make their companies more responsi‐ ble," not only for the com‐ panies they sell to directly, but also third parties that may end up using their pro‐ ducts, she said. "This will force [corporations] to in‐ crease their compliance."