The obscure Western technology that’s helping kill Ukrainians
The obscure Western technology that’s helping kill Ukrainians
CNC machines, precision technology for manufacturing complex equipment, help make deadly Kinzhal and Iskander-M missiles. We examine the site of such an attack to learn the human cost of CNC machines.
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"I was saved by the fact that I was afraid of funerals," Alina Chahodaeva said.
On October 5, 2023, Russia launched an attack on a café in Hroza village, a small settlement with around 300 residents, situated in the northeast Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
The onslaught occurred as villagers gathered to mourn Andrii Kozyr, a fallen soldier who had been brought home to be laid to rest by his son Denys.
It was during this solemn ceremony that a Russian missile struck, claiming the lives of the Kozyr family – including Denys, his young wife Nina, his mother, her parents, and at least 55 others in attendance.
In a flash, a fifth of the whole village was killed.
Alina's family, including her mother, grandmother and sister, who had come from Kharkiv especially for the funeral, also attended the funeral.
They all died.
At the age of 15, she was left a half-orphan.
The Russians hit the village with an Iskander-M missile made by the Kolomna, Russia-based Machine Building Design Bureau, which runs using Western CNC machines. A CNC machine, or computer numerical control machine, is a cutting device that can precisely shape highly technical products on a mass scale.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, much of Russia's defense industry has been subject to Western sanctions, but contractors of the companies that produce the Kinzhal and Iskander-M, the most dangerous of the Russian guided missiles used in the war with Ukraine, have so far escaped European attention.
This is important because if the West shuts down Russia’s access to CNC machines, it can degrade Russia’s ability to kill Ukrainians, and to wage war in general.
On October 5, 2023, before the attacks, Alina had an online college class: she is studying to be a music teacher. Her family went to the soldier’s funeral, and she was supposed to go too. But after considering it, she decided not to: she doesn't feel very good at funerals.
This saved her life.
Without any warning, without the air alarm sounding, there was a loud explosion. It was so strong that it knocked a bottle off the table. Alina was frightened but thought that the strike had landed somewhere in the area.
"Then my friend called me. She said that it had hit the cafe. I took my bicycle, rode towards the smoke and saw the bombed-out cafe," she said.
Alina's sister and mother died immediately.
Her grandmother was taken to the hospital, but could not be saved.
As we talk, the girl holds herself together, saying she could have cried earlier, but she had to come to terms with the loss.
But I can hear the pride in her family in her voice. Her mother, Liudmyla, was very active in the war effort. She always distributed humanitarian aid in the village when it arrived. Even during the war, she organized children's parties to comfort them in their time of need.
"And my sister studied to be a music teacher. She sang there in Kharkiv, performed in many places, donated blood," Alina said.
Alina misses her family, especially her mother, but she still has her father. He didn't come to the funeral because he was in hospital at the time after being wounded in the war. Now they live together.
Her friend Daryna Panteleeva was even less fortunate. During the tragedy, she lost her mother, father, and grandparents. Now she is 18 and has a younger brother and sister. Fortunately, they still have their other grandparents. Her grandfather took custody of them all.
Daryna is facing the loss of her family very hard. Especially her parents.
"My dad and mom did everything, they didn't involve us in anything. It was very difficult to accept that my parents were gone. It's still very difficult now," she said.
During our conversation, Daryna occasionally lowers her voice, falls silent, and sometimes sniffs.
She seems to have a lump in her throat because of what happened.
The attack killed 59 people in the village. Daryna and Alina say that Hroza is devastated and it is very rare to see people outside now.
"People only come when humanitarian aid is distributed. Otherwise, there is no one. There was a big shop, a cafe, a playground. And now everyone is sitting at home," Alina said.
This tragedy occurred because the Russians still have access to Western equipment.
The Kolomna-based Machine-Building Design Bureau that produced the deadly Iskander-M missile receives American chips from China.
Other missile components come from Europe. For example, environmental chambers used to stress products and test their resistance to hot and cold are imported from Polish company Intertrans Sp through the Moscow-based company Ostek-Test; and industrial tools are purchased from the German company KEB-Rus. Intermediary companies also purchase products for the bureau from manufacturers in Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
CNC machines are the backbone of weapons manufacturing.
In particular, CNC machines make it possible to reduce the number of rejects and significantly increase the productivity of the entire enterprise. Thanks to the double advantage of speed and quality of metal processing, CNC machines multiply production productivity many times over.
Open data shows that since 2016, the Russian company has signed at least 44 contracts worth $11 million for the purchase of CNC machines. Western manufacturers include DMG Mori (Japan, Germany), Haas (USA), and Kososvit MAS (Czech Republic), said Roman Steblivskyi, Head of Sanctions Department at Trap Aggressor.
Ukraine has been calling for its Western partners to impose sanctions to prevent Russia from obtaining CNC machines and thus having something to attack Ukraine with.
"After a long analysis, we concluded that sanctions should be imposed against CNC machines. These are very vulnerable items that the Russian defense industry cannot obtain. This is something that Russia does not know how to make, and it is very difficult to buy. These things are made by a few companies. And if they are sanctioned, the Russian industry will suffer greatly," said Mark Savchuk, an expert on CNC machines.
While it is illegal to sell advanced tools to Russia from the EU or the US, Russians are exploiting the second-hand machine market and buying tools from these companies, often using intermediary countries such as Turkey or China for re-export.
For example, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, China has increased its deliveries of high-precision machine tools to Russia for the Russian military industry tenfold, the Financial Times reported. Currently, Chinese manufacturers dominate the trade in critical elements for Moscow's military industry.
Even after Western countries tightened sanctions in 2022, the threshold for the bans to be met remains extremely high, allowing many dual-use items needed to produce Russian weapons to cross borders unimpeded.
Meanwhile, Russia already has a huge number of CNC machines, and it will do everything within its power to extend their life as long as possible, said Valerii Hrysha, a Ukrainian design engineer who specializes in CNC machines.
"We can inconvenience the Russians, slow down their technological processes, without programmable machines. People are getting older, quitting their jobs, getting tired. But the machine does not have these problems: it will not get tired, it will work 24 hours a day," Hrysha said.
It won't be possible to do all this quickly, Valerii said.
But it could postpone the next war on Ukraine – or even make it impossible.
After the paywall: Russia gains territory in the east — a real consequence of the delay in American aid to Ukraine. And in reporter’s notebook, I write about a common question I’ve gotten while touring the U.S. and Canada — how should we deal with the polluted social media environment?
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