Dutch-made microchips reached Russia through China despite US sanctions: Report

A new investigation report has revealed that millions of microchips me by Dutch companies reached Russia last year and were used in defence systems and equipment, despite US's ban on Russia following Ukraine war.

Dutch newspaper Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (S) revealed that NXP and Nexperia microchips produced by a Dutch manufacturer were handled by resellers and sold to three Russian companies.

It came to light that entire operation was done via a group of Chinese companies that helped Russia provide techlogy after receiving it from Dutch manufacturers.

Dutch-me microchips reached Russia through China despite US sanctions: Report

"A range of Dutch components are crucial to Russian war machine; se chips are regularly found in almost all s of Russian military drones and or precision weapons, such as cruise missiles," said James Byrne, director of open-source intelligence and analysis research group at Royal United Services Institute.

However, companies have denied claims and said y don’t do business with Russia, ding that ir customers are also t allowed to resell products. companies’ spokespeople said that y can't do anything if chips are sent to Russia through parallel tre. largest of se shipments that included se microchips was from Sin Electronics, which has been sanctioned by Washington but t by European Union. Or boxes included smaller shipments sent by regular mail to avoid US sanctions, per report published by New York Times.

report furr stated that Ukraine was asked to examine 27 Russian defence systems and equipment, and it was found that 10 of 27 weapon systems contained NXP chips. tably, se NXP microchips have been used in Russian missiles, helicopters, drones, and howitzers, including Iranian attack drones, report said.

Meanwhile, responding to concern Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs told that " Nerlands is very concerned about this and, toger with European Union and or EU countries, is looking for effective ways to prevent this and to tackle brokering". tably, use of se microchips in Russian defence equipment could ultimately escalate Russia-Ukraine conflict and put western allies under question.

Im: Unsplash