There are Russian missiles made just a few months ago despite the sanctions

Some of the cruise missiles Russia fired at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in late November were manufactured months after the West imposed sanctions aimed at depriving Moscow of the components needed to make those munitions, according to an arms research group. .

Experts have examined remains of Kh-101 cruise missile found in Kiev, the capital, after a Nov. 23 attack that cut electricity and disrupted water systems across much of the country.

One of the missiles was manufactured this summer and another was completed after September, according to a report released Monday by the researchers.

The fact that Russia has continued to produce advanced guided missiles like the Kh-101 suggests that it has found a way to do so buy semiconductors and other materials despite sanctions or had significant stockpiles of these components before the war started, according to one researcher.

The results are among the most recent in Conflict Weapons Researcha British-based independent group that identifies and traces weapons and ammunition used in wars.

A small team of his investigators arrived in Kiev shortly before the attack at the invitation of the Security Service of Ukraine.

On four previous research trips to Kiev after the invasion, the researchers found that almost all of the advanced Russian military equipment they examined, including encrypted radios and laser rangefinders, was built with western semiconductors.

The researchers were unable to determine whether the wreckage of the Kh-101 they studied came from missiles that struck their targets and exploded or were intercepted in flight and shot down.

Kh-101 missiles were marked with a 13-digit number sequence.

Researchers believe the first three digits represent the factory where the missile was manufactured, followed by another three-digit code indicating which of the two known versions of the Kh-101 it is, and two digits indicating when it was manufactured.

A trailing string of five numbers is believed to indicate the production lot and serial number of the missile.

Piotr Butowski, a Polish journalist who has written extensively on Russia’s warplanes and military munitions, said the group’s numerical analysis coincided with your search

The first three digits are always “315”, the manufacturing facility code,” Butowski explains in an email.

“Kh-101 missiles are developed and manufactured by the company Raduga in Dubna, near Moscow”.

In an interview before the report was released, a US defense intelligence analyst said Butowski’s analysis was consistent with the government’s understanding of how Russian missile manufacturers, including those producing the Kh-101, they mark their weapons.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said it was widely believed that Russia was experiencing security problems. ammunition depot and that you could use newer ammo alongside much older ones.

The analyst said reports from Russia indicate the government has ordered employees at munitions factories to work longer hours in an effort to produce more munitions, and that it is clear Russia is firing now. less ranged weaponssuch as cruise missiles, against a smaller number of targets in Ukraine.

Pentagon officials say Russia has fired thousands of long-range weapons, including cruise missiles, as well as short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, at targets in Ukraine since the war began.

It is unclear whether Russia has exhausted its inventory of old cruise missiles.

But armies often use the oldest ammunition first in combat because they often make up the majority of a nation’s arsenal.

On November 23, the same day as the cruise missile attack on Kiev, Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, told reporters that Russia’s supply of precision-guided weapons had been “significantly reduced” and that Russia reportedly had a harder time producing quickly “because of the trade restrictions they have on microchips and other kinds of things.”

But Damien Spleeters, who led the investigation for Conflict Armament Research, said it would be hard to tell that the Russians are out of arms.

“These claims have been going on since April,” he said, “so we’re just pointing to the fact that these newly produced cruise missiles could be a symptom, but it’s not a certainty.”

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