Gary Somerville

However, the report released today by the Royal United Services Institute, a leading defence thinktank, warned that such measures have done little to stop Russian re-armament, and production of some equipment has actually increased in the wake of sanctions.

Western sanctions have failed to undermine Russia’s weapons production and Moscow has even managed to ramp up the manufacturing of key weapons to fuel its war against Ukraine, according to a new report by a London-based think tank. The sanctions effort has been hampered by overly cautious decision-making by Western governments and delays in sharing intelligence among Western allies, said the report by the Royal United Services Institute.

It may be a way to mask Russia's current rate of missile production, versus how quickly Moscow is going through missiles, added Gary Somerville, a research fellow with the Open-Source Intelligence and Analysis Research Group at the London-based think tank, the Royal United Services Institute. "We already know that the Kh-101s that have been produced after the 2022 invasion began have undergone some notable technological improvements so that it is easy to tell the difference between the two iterations," he told Newsweek. "We have seen instances of components being used in Russian weapons where serial numbers or branding have been removed or attempts have been made to remove them, but this has not been consistent across the various platforms."