While Trump Arms Ukraine, US Firms Arm Russia | The American Spectator

War is brutal. But sometimes, it tips into the truly surreal. Where violence collides with contradiction, and reality feels like parody. The Ukraine war is one of those times.

President Trump recently pledged Patriot missile systems to Kyiv and floated 100 percent tariffs on Russian goods. A bold move. But what he might not realize is that American companies have been secretly supplying the Russian military all along.

A damning new investigation from the International Partnership for Human Rights and the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission exposes the scale of the betrayal. Russian Su-34 and Su-35S fighter jets, the same ones reducing Ukrainian hospitals and schools to rubble, are packed with microelectronics made by Texas Instruments, Intel, Analog Devices, ON Semiconductor, and AMD. These are cutting-edge American components fueling Russian bombs, not just the planes that drop them.

The supply chain operates through a sophisticated evasion network. Despite sweeping sanctions, Russia imported $805 million worth of microelectronic goods in 2023 alone. The report analyzed over 180,000 customs shipment records, revealing how components flow through China, Hong Kong, Turkey, and the UAE, where intermediary firms obscure the final destination.

More than 1,100 microelectronic components from 141 Western companies power Russian Su-34 and Su-35S jets. These aren’t obsolete Soviet-era aircraft. These are sophisticated killing machines equipped with UMPB D30-SN glide bombs and Grom-1 missiles, their targeting systems guided by American-made semiconductors, navigation powered by German processors, communications running on Japanese components.

The human cost is documented with surgical precision. Between May 2023 and May 2024, Russian jets powered by Western tech killed 26 civilians and injured 109 more in 60 confirmed strikes. They flattened 71 homes, five schools, five hospitals, and critical power stations — proof that U.S. components aren’t just reaching the battlefield, they’re shaping it.

Consider the mechanics of this betrayal. A Ukrainian mother huddles over her children as a Russian fighter jet screams overhead — its targeting system calibrated by Texas Instruments, its flight control guided by Intel processors, its communications routed through chips from Analog Devices. The glide bombs that obliterate schools and hospitals don’t just carry Russian payloads. They carry Western fingerprints. They’re the consequences of a supply chain designed for profit and indifferent to war.

Corporate accountability has been nonexistent. A U.S. Senate investigation revealed that Texas Instruments ignored more than 100 trace requests about its components turning up in Russian weapons between August 2022 and February 2024.

At the very same time, Russian suppliers brag openly about getting their hands on banned Western tech.  Even those who think America’s support for Ukraine has gone too far can’t ignore the madness: Washington sends weapons to Kyiv while U.S. companies arm Moscow’s jets. Only the most deluded can accept Russia benefiting from American technology while American taxpayers fund Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression.

This isn’t about supporting Ukraine or questioning aid levels. This is about basic American interests. Every microchip flowing to Russian military factories strengthens one of America’s primary geopolitical rival. Every semiconductor powering Russian aircraft is a strategic gift to Moscow. The debate over Ukraine aid becomes meaningless when American companies are simultaneously strengthening the very military machine that aid is meant to counter.

Consider the strategic lunacy: America spends billions developing advanced weapons systems to maintain military superiority over Russia, then American corporations sell the components that help Russian weapons systems kill more effectively. The Pentagon funds research into countering Russian air defenses while American semiconductors make those same air defenses more lethal.

Ukraine skeptics who worry about endless commitments and escalation should be horrified by this revelation. If America is going to be drawn into confrontation with Russia anyway — through NATO obligations, nuclear tensions, or global competition — why are American companies helping Russia build better weapons? The choice isn’t between supporting Ukraine and avoiding Russian conflict. The choice is between confronting Russia while American technology helps Russian military capabilities or confronting Russia after American technology has made Russian military capabilities more dangerous.

The United States has provided over $100 billion in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022. Simultaneously, American companies have generated hundreds of millions in revenue from components that end up in Russian military systems. This isn’t policy inconsistency; it’s industrial-scale moral schizophrenia.

The corporate response has been predictably pathetic. Murata Manufacturing publicly stated that their products are not intended for military use. This disclaimer is meaningless when Russian procurement networks openly advertise their ability to acquire sanctioned components. The companies know their products end up in Russian weapons systems. They simply choose profitable ignorance over moral responsibility.

The enforcement mechanisms are deliberately weak. Export controls rely on end-user certificates that are easily falsified. Customs inspections focus on volume rather than end-use. Intelligence agencies track the flow of sensitive technology but lack authority to impose real consequences on violating companies.

The solution starts at the top. President Trump must treat this for what it is: a betrayal of national interest and a stain on American credibility. No more tech firms hiding behind supply chain complexity. No more shell companies operating with impunity. No more tolerance for U.S. companies helping Russia build the bombs that slaughter civilians.

That means criminal charges for executives. Asset freezes for middlemen. Sanctions not just on foreign facilitators, but on the domestic enablers who looked the other way.

This isn’t some regulatory hiccup. It’s a war crime supply network, and American companies’ fingerprints are all over it.

The real obscenity isn’t just that Russian jets bomb Ukrainian cities; it’s that they do it with chips and sensors designed in California, tested in Texas, and shipped through loopholes. Under President Trump, this ends in courtrooms, not boardrooms. No more loopholes. No more blood for quarterly gains. Treason has a price, and it’s time they paid in full.

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