Washington: The FBI and the Department of Commerce have launched an investigation into how Russia obtained US-made computer chips that have been found in military equipment captured in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Federal agents from both agencies are already investigating US companies that manufacture the chips, the report said.
The chips as well as other high-tech components made in the United States and the collective West have been discovered in captured Russian radar systems, drones, tanks, ground-control equipment and even littoral combat ships for close-to-shore naval operations, the report said.
Some Russian unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, that have been shot down over western Ukraine were packed with high tech components made in the West, the report added.
Many of the components were manufactured before the US first imposed economic sanctions on Russia in 2014 but others were manufactured as recently as 2020, according to the report.
