KI short logo

Investigations

Russia is ramping up Shahed drone production using European-made components.
Investigations

Investigation: How Russian drones exploit European technologies to strike Ukraine, and beyond

by Alisa Yurchenko

Editor's note: This story is part of a cross-border investigative project that involved eight newsrooms, initiated by De Tijd (Belgium) and coordinated by the Kyiv Independent and OCCRP. Other stories published within the project are linked at the bottom of this investigation. A tiny Austrian sensor designed for precise motion control made an impressive journey across the globe. Some time after being sold to a company in Hong Kong, it turned up in Ukraine inside a long-range military drone laun

More from Investigations

NewsLetters

News Feed

Why Rheinmetall and the West still don't understand Ukraine's defense tech revolution

When evaluating military technology, it helps to distinguish between two domains: the industrial and the battlefield. Rheinmetall is unquestionably a large company that produces effective weapons systems that actually work on the battlefield. This is a fact that does not require emotional amplification or denial. But those two domains carry different kinds of authority, and conflating them leads to poor analysis. The statement by Rheinmetall's CEO, Armin Papperger, about Ukrainian drones goes

A soldier of the 127th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade launches a drone in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on March 14, 2026.

Ukraine's parliamentary dysfunction, explained

Ukraine's parliament is in gridlock as relations have broken down between the legislative and executive branches of government. The parliamentary crisis, as some have rushed to describe it, has been ignited by the President's Office's weakening influence over the legislature and a lack of communication between parliament and the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, lawmakers and analysts have told the Kyiv Independent. "(Svyrydenko) works only with the President's Office and does not wo

President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses parliamentarians at the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 16, 2024.

Most Popular

1.
Politics

Zelensky responds to Rubio's accusation of lying

Zelensky responds to Rubio's accusation of lying

President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 28 clarified his understanding of Washington's position on security guarantees for Ukraine, in response to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling his previous statement on the issue "a lie."

Editors' Picks

News Feed