Foreign companies help to aim Russian missiles at Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has said.

"In the past two weeks, Ukraine has been subjected to the most extensive shelling over the entire period of the full-scale war. On November 15, Russia fired around 100 missiles at Ukrainian cities and villages. A multi-apartment building was damaged in Kyiv – at least one person was killed. Due to massive shelling, residents of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne, Khmelnytsky and many other settlements were partially or completely left without electricity and water supply," it said.

On November 23, the Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 51 of 70 cruise missiles and five kamikaze drones that Russian troops fired against Ukraine. At the same time, Russia still caused damage to the energy and civilian infrastructure, as a result of which most Ukrainian cities were de-energized.

In addition, Russian missiles hit three multi-apartment buildings, killing ten people.

The massive shelling of Ukraine by Russian invaders not only led to deaths and significant damage to Ukrainian infrastructure, but also damaged the power grid of Moldova, leaving part of the country without electricity.

"Russian missiles do not reach targets without accurate coordinates defined by navigation systems... To control missiles, Russia uses its own development of GLONASS, an analogue of GPS. GLONASS was created in 1982 by order of the Soviet Defense Ministry. Although GLONASS is a dual-use system, it is mainly used by Russian military to aim weapons at Ukrainian cities," the Intelligence Directorate said.

The Russian navigation system has "a weak point", GLONASS depends on microchips produced by foreign companies, it said.

"Russian missiles and drones have foreign-made GLONASS-enabled microchips – usually civilian chips, but Russians use them for military purposes. The chips receive and process GLONASS coordinates, and missiles use this information to navigate in space and aim at the Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure," the agency said.

A number of foreign companies still continue to produce microchips with GLONASS support. The list of these enterprises, in particular, includes Linx Technologies (USA), Broadcom (USA), Qualcomm (USA), Telit (USA), Maxim Integrated (USA), TRIMBLE (USA), Cavli Wireless (USA), u-blox AG (Switzerland), STMicroelectronics (Switzerland), Sierra Wireless (Canada), NovAtel (Canada), Septentrio (Belgium), Antenova (UK).

"Russia, in turn, continues to purchase GLONASS-enabled microchips through numerous front companies and distributors. They are used in weapons such as Orlan-10 and Shahed-136 drones, Tornado-S and Smerch MLRS, Iskander, Kalibr and Kinzhal missiles, as well as air and cruise missiles Kh-101, Kh-555, Kh-38, Kh-59MK, Kh-31," the Ukrainian intelligence said.

Without foreign-made GLONASS-enabled chips, Russians will have to build their own microelectronics from the scratch, it said.

"In this case, export control and control by manufacturers will not work, because Russia is constantly coming up with new ways to circumvent sanctions and purchase technologies. Foreign companies should realize the direct impact of their products on Russia's defense capability, stop producing GLONASS-enabled chips and remove the support function for this navigation system from all their devices," the Main Intelligence Directorate said.