Investigation: Western machinery at the heart of Russian arms producers like Kalashnikov – The Kyiv Independent

Investigation: Western machinery at the heart of Russian arms producers like Kalashnikov  The Kyiv Independent

Leaked documents reveal over 50 Russian defense companies operating Western industrial high-precision machinery — produced by Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden — to manufacture weapons used against Ukraine. Internal documents obtained by the Kyiv Independent show how a Swiss-linked company operating in Russia kept Western machinery at Russian arms factories running. Investigation by the Kyiv Independent shows how a Swiss-linked company helped Russian arms factories source Western-made spare parts to keep their machinery arsenal running. (Nataliia Shulga/The Kyiv Independent) What do various Russian defense companies — manufacturers of missiles and missile launchers, ammunition, combat vehicles, military aircraft, assault rifles, and artillery shells — have in common? They operate a fleet of Western-made high-precision machinery to produce their lethal products.

That machinery, a significant portion of which was imported to Russia before its full-scale war against Ukraine, requires maintenance and replacement parts. For that, many of them rely on a single Russia-based supplier: Galika-Service. Throughout the war, this company has helped to prevent a fleet of Western machine tools at Russian arms factories from breaking down, according to documents leaked to the Kyiv Independent. Galika-Service is not a purely Russian company — it is the Russian arm of the Swiss firm Galika AG, which for years exported Swiss, German, and Swedish industrial machinery to Russia. Its leader, Lino Derungs, a Swiss national,