The Russian army regularly uses three models of drones - Shahed-136/131, Lancet and Orlan-10. The main supplier of critical components for drones is China.
This is stated on the website of the Ukrainian President with a reference to a study by the International Working Group on Sanctions against Russia, headed by Andriy Yermak and the director of the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Ambassador Michael McFaul.
According to the report, the Yermak-McFaul group studied 174 foreign components removed from three models of UAVs used by Russian troops on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In particular, the Russian army regularly uses three main models of drones: Shahed-136/131, Lancet, and Orlan-10. At the same time, in production of UAVs Russia still relies heavily on foreign-made components, including microelectronics.
At the same time, many parts can be obtained through publicly available platforms, which complicates regulatory oversight. Thus, the group's experts urged manufacturers to do more to prevent Russia from accessing their products bypassing economic sanctions.
"Russia is extremely active in using drones for massive attacks on infrastructure, civilian and military targets in Ukraine, so it is very disturbing to see that important components for the production of hostile UAVs come from different countries, including Ukraine's allies. This issue requires our joint immediate response. We have to take joint actions to prevent the aggressor from using critical components to continue hostilities in Ukraine," emphasised Yermak.
According to British intel, Russia has begun using its own unilateral unmanned aerial vehicles (OWA-UAV), based on Iranian developments of the Shahed drone. However, the Kremlin still depends on Iranian arms supplies.