Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense claimed on Tuesday for the first time that it shot down an Iranian drone launched by Russians.
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The ministry posted photos of the wreckage of the drone on social media and identified it as a Shahed-136. It said the army shot down the drone near Kupiansk, Kharkiv, the location of Ukraine’s ongoing and most successful counteroffensive since Russia invaded in late February.
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Ukrainian officials did not provide many details about the drone, and Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder could not confirm the use of the Iranian drone during Tuesday’s briefing.
The Biden administration warned publicly back in July that Russia was looking to acquire hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. Administration officials confirmed to the Washington Examiner in late August that they had acquired the drones.
“We assess that Russia intends to use these Iranian UAVs, which can conduct air-to-surface attacks, electronic warfare, and targeting, on the battlefield in Ukraine,” they said. “The Russian military is suffering from major supply shortages in Ukraine, in part because of sanctions and export controls, forcing Russia to rely on unreliable countries like Iran for supplies and equipment.”
Russia’s acquisition of Iranian drones demonstrates their strengthening relationship as opponents to the Western world and NATO.
Administration officials have also warned that Russia has sought to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea, another United States adversary, while defense officials have said that they have not seen intelligence to show Russia reaching out to any additional countries.
Over the last week or so, Ukraine has launched two counterattacks, one in the east and one in the south, the former of which has resulted in staggering success. The Ukrainian forces have recaptured almost all of Kharkiv Oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s Sunday update, and they have, in some locations, penetrated Russia’s military to a depth of roughly 40 miles.
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“From the beginning of September until today, our warriors have already liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine in the east and south,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday. “The movement of our troops continues.”
Despite the Ukrainians’ successful counteroffensive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Russia would not mobilize its reserve forces to supplement its troops in Ukraine. Doing so would likely force the Kremlin to acknowledge to its people that what it called a “special military operation” is both not going well and a full military operation.
