Summary
Ukraine’s military intelligence reported finding Western-made components inside Russian decoy drones, used in recent swarm attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.
Dubbed “Parody,” these decoys are cheaper than Iran’s Shahed-136 drones but can mimic their radar signatures, creating fake targets to distract defenses.
Russia reportedly launched over 2,000 drones last month, half of which were decoys, with some crashing in Moldova, raising regional security concerns.
Despite sanctions, Western technology continues to appear in Russian weapons, complicating efforts to restrict Moscow’s drone capabilities.
That is basically how ITAR export controls work, but only for much more complicated weapon parts like nukes and fighter jets. It’s basically impossible to stop the flow of stuff that any country can make. The parts in this article would likely fall under EAR99, explicitly allowed to sell to any not-embargoed country.
Source: was a business area export representative (BAER) and yes I know this is an oversimplification