Ukrainian forces have shot down a new Russian drone, the Geran-5, a fast, missile-like unmanned system capable of flying at up to 600 km/h, making it far harder to intercept than earlier Shahed-type drones. Ukrainian intelligence says the Geran-5 is based on Iran’s Karrar design and uses a turbojet engine and advanced electronics, including multiple American and European microchips produced as recently as 2024 and 2025, accroding top Alisa Yurchenko of The Kyiv Independent. The findings highlight how Western-made components continue to reach Russia via third-country supply chains, enabling Moscow to sustain large-scale drone production despite sanctions and fueling ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. Yurchenko writes:
On one of the first days of 2026, the Ukrainian military downed a Russian drone of a new type. It was identified as Geran-5, a fast and long-range drone.
It shares the name with the Russian copies of Iranian Shaheds — Geran-1, Geran-2, Geran-3, and Geran-4 — and is made by the same Russian manufacturer and with similar components. […]
One of the key functional differences of the latest Geran is speed. The new drone can fly at 500-600 km per hour — approximately three times faster than Geran-2, Russia’s most-used drone that flies at 180 km per hour. Their high speed makes the new drones difficult to intercept. […]
A solid piece on Geran-5 and why Russia’s drone development remains possible: continued access to Western components. As long as U.S. and European microchips keep getting through, these systems will keep evolving.https://t.co/viKlm5Fxns
— Vladyslav Vlasiuk (@vladvlas) January 22, 2026
Ukrainian military intelligence published the list of components it had identified. Just like with Russian earlier copies of Iranian drones, the new drone’s electronics contain microchips produced with Western technology, not just Chinese. […]
Ukrainian intelligence has established that the new drone features a Chinese-made Telefly turbojet engine and a satellite navigation system receiver.
The receiver contains microchips branded with the names of three American companies: Texas Instruments, CTS Corporation, and Monolithic Power Systems.
Additionally, a microchip bearing the logo of the German company Infineon Technologies was identified in another part of the drone.
The largest number of Western microchips found — six units — come from the U.S. company Texas Instruments. […]
Customs records reviewed by the Kyiv Independent indicate that Western chips are shipped to Russia by a vast network of electronic component traders, primarily registered in China and Hong Kong. A smaller portion of them are based in countries like the UAE or Kyrgyzstan. […]
Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s sanctions commissioner, believes that around 30% of Western-branded chips used in Russian weapons could be either counterfeit or illegally overmanufactured in Asian factories owned by American and European producers. The remaining 70% are original products manufactured at Western companies’ factories, mainly in Asia.
In his opinion, manufacturers could cooperate more with the Ukrainian government to conduct internal investigations and identify those elements in long resale chains through which chips are being smuggled into Russia.
Read more here.
