A senior Ukrainian official, in a comment to Politico, stated that Russia is catching up with Ukraine in the production of drones thanks to greater financial resources, production far in the rear, and, especially, assistance from China.
A senior Ukrainian official, in a comment to Politico, stated that Russia is catching up with Ukraine in the production of drones thanks to greater financial resources, production far in the rear, and, especially, assistance from China.
«Chinese manufacturers supply them with equipment, electronics, navigation, optical and telemetry systems, engines, microcircuits, processor modules, antenna array systems, control boards, navigation. They use so-called shell companies, change names, do everything to avoid falling under export control and avoid sanctions for their activities,» said Oleg Aleksandrov, spokesman for the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. He added that officially China complies with all the rules, «but only officially.»
China has repeatedly denied supplying any drones or weapons components to Russia, calling the Ukrainian protests «baseless accusations and political manipulation.» But Alexandrov said Russia is critically dependent on Chinese supplies of spare parts for both tactical and long-range drones.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia can still buy Chinese DJI Mavic drones, but this opportunity is closed for Ukraine and Europe.
«Because we didn’t have such strong mass production, everyone used the corresponding Chinese drones. And it was everywhere. The Chinese „Mavik“ is open to the „Russians“ and closed to Ukrainians. Therefore, when, for example, they say, is China helping the „Russians“ — how to evaluate such steps?», Zelensky said.
Russia is increasingly using drones that are controlled not by radio signals but by fiber-optic cables, making them invulnerable to electronic warfare. Previously, Ukrainian forces could detect conventional Russian drones as soon as they took to the sky, but with drones controlled via fiber optics, it is much more difficult.
«Therefore, we have to use various acoustic and other means to track these drones,» noted one of the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
China is also involved in the development of fiber-optic drones. Recently, a specialist in radio technology, military engineer and engineer Sergey «Flash» Bezkrestnov published a video showing a coil of fiber-optic cable for a drone with a range of 50 km.
Chinese working on Russian drones say they now have 50 km of fiber optic cables.
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Ukraine is fighting every enemy of western civilization while the US is increasingly on the side of the bad guys. pic.twitter.com/Y2gwc3eJZi
«The Chinese made a 50-kilometer-long fiber optic coil for the enemy. It weighs 3.8 kilograms,» the expert said.
