Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba reproaches the West for foreign components in Russian weapons

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has criticized Western countries for poorly monitoring the implementation of sanctions, resulting in foreign components being used in Russian weaponry.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made these remarks during a Ukrainian breakfast in Davos as part of the World Economic Forum.

“Almost all the weapons produced in Russia, in Russian missiles that we have shot down or intercepted in the last two years, contain many Western components. Some even say that 95% of modern Russian weapons come from the West,” said Kuleba.

According to him, this is not due to the ineffectiveness of sanctions but because Russia has found ways to circumvent them through well-established business schemes. Kuleba expressed confidence that the world’s best Western intelligence is capable of tracking instances of sanctions violations.

“The West has the best business intelligence in the world. I do not believe that the West lacks the ability to identify these schemes and stop them,” added the minister.

He believes that Western countries allegedly do not do enough to halt the supply of their technologies to Russia.

Kuleba noted that in this situation, Western countries find themselves paying twice: first, by helping to rebuild Ukrainian cities destroyed by Russian weapons, and second, by bearing the reputational losses due to foreign components ending up in Russia.

As reported by Newsweek, Russia has “overcome” the sanctions regime that Western countries had hoped would damage its economy and force it to cease the “special operation” in Ukraine.