The US senators recently held discussions with top microelectronics companies to address the issue of American chips and electronics being found in Russian weapons seized on the battlefield in Ukraine. This discovery has raised concerns about the effectiveness of US sanctions and export controls, as it inadvertently supports Russia’s war efforts. It highlights the urgent need for stricter oversight of global supply chains and the challenges in preventing the diversion of dual-use technologies to adversaries.
According to a report by Voice of America, the vice presidents of AMD, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, and Intel Corporation testified at a hearing titled “US Technologies Powering Russia’s War Machine” in the US Senate on September 10. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who chaired the hearing, shared documents provided by Ukrainian authorities containing data on nearly 25,000 components recovered from Russian weapons on the battlefield. He pointed out that a majority of these components, 73%, were from American companies, with 40% coming from the companies represented at the hearing. Blumenthal also mentioned the recent attack on Okhmatdyt, the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv, by a Russian cruise missile made with American technology.
The company representatives emphasized their compliance with sanctions and their own efforts to prevent their products from ending up in Russian weapons. They also stated that most of the components found on the battlefield were basic microchips that were not subject to export restrictions and were produced before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, Blumenthal expressed doubts about the companies’ claims, citing information from Ukraine that the chips found were new and not from 15 years ago. He urged the companies to not just respond to requests to trace a specific microchip, but to send delegations to Ukraine to examine the evidence themselves.
Blumenthal also called on US companies to make additional commitments to increase control over microchip shipments and to audit sales through other countries, such as Turkey and Kazakhstan. He urged them to take concrete actions rather than just making promises based on a few tracking requests.
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