Zelensky: West Still Fueling Russia’s War Machine with High-Tech Tools
Western machine tools are still reaching Russia despite sanctions, fueling the Kremlin’s war machine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
“The Russian Federation receives machine tools from some countries – machine tools that they use to manufacture weapons,” Zelensky said in a public remark on Saturday.
Zelensky did not specify the types of “machine tools” Russian arms makers have received from the West.
Zelensky also named several countries whose equipment was identified as being used by Russia, including Germany, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Japan – as well as one business supplying “a small number of components from the United States,” AFP reported.
“We have passed on all this information to all countries, our partners, everyone… We strongly urge everyone to impose sanctions on these companies,” Zelensky added.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, in a comment to AFP via his spokeswoman, told AFP that his country is working to “minimize the bypassing of sanctions.”
Zelensky’s Saturday remarks echoed reports from within Ukraine about Russia’s use of modern Western equipment to manufacture weapons.
In March, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) said it has identified 1,158 individual critical machine tools imported into Russia in 2024 currently used to manufacture tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, artillery, drones and artillery ammunition, or components for those weapons.
While most equipment identified was of Chinese origin, HUR’s report also named a number of machine tools made in Italy, Germany, Turkey and Switzerland, among others.
A research by the Economic Security Council, a Ukrainian NGO, said Russia imported $18.2 billion worth of precision manufacturing machines since 2023, the majority of which came from China in the form of computer numerical control (CNC) machines and associated components.
However, regarding CNC components, Switzerland and Germany ranked just below China in supplies to Russia, covering almost a quarter of the supplies.
CNC machines are automated tools controlled by programmed instructions to precisely manufacture parts by cutting, drilling, milling or shaping materials – a necessary manufacturing tool to scale modern arms production.
Source: Leo Chiu