UK inquiry ‘to establish whether British components used in Russian weapons’

Pro-Russian troops driving tanks near Mariupol last month. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Ministers are to investigate whether British-made components identified as being used in Russian weapons systems are being deployed in Ukraine.

A report by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) said that research conducted by the Ukrainian armed forces of Russian weapons systems recovered from the battlefield showed a “consistent pattern” of dependence on foreign-made components, in some cases British.