Russia has acquired two different types of drones from Iran with the intent for the military to use them in Ukraine, according to U.S. administration officials.
Earlier this month, Russian officials loaded up both the Mohajer-6 and Shahed series unmanned aerial vehicles in transport aircraft before flying them from Iran to Russia. The transport has “already experienced numerous failures,” the officials told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday, but they did not elaborate.
UKRAINIAN TROOPS HAVE BEGUN COUNTEROFFENSIVE IN THE SOUTH, OFFICIAL SAYS
“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.”
The officials did not specify how many drones Russia has already transported, but they said their expectation is that Russia’s plan is “to import hundreds of Iranian UAVs of various types.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan initially told reporters about declassified intelligence from the United States indicating a possible drone sale between the two countries on July 11. Sullivan had said that Iran was prepared to send “several hundred [unmanned aerial vehicles], including weapons capable UAVs on an expedited timeline,” to Russia.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian President’s Office, said in early August that Russia had received nearly 50 Iranian drones and that they were being used in the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
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Administration and defense officials have implied multiple times that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who went to Iran this summer, must be getting desperate if he’s turning to Iran as a lifeline.
The war recently concluded its sixth month, and it coincided with a Ukrainian counteroffensive focused on the liberation of the southern city of Kherson, which has been occupied since the early days of the invasion.
