As the Islamic Republic’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers hangs in the balance, Ukraine’s military claimed on Tuesday for the first time that the Russian military had used an Iranian-supplied suicide drone on the battlefield. As a result of the growing relationship between Moscow and Tehran, ties between the two countries are deepening.
According to U.S. intelligence, Tehran planned to send hundreds of bomb-carrying drones to Russia as part of its war against Ukraine, according to a public warning issued in July. Despite initially denying it, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards chief has boasted that they are arming the world’s leading powers.
The Ukrainian military’s Strategic Communications Directorate has published several images of the wreckage of the drone. Iran flew a triangle-shaped drone known as Shahed-136, or “Witness” in Farsi, which resembled this object.
During Kyiv’s offensive on the eastern front, which has pushed through Russian lines around Kharkiv, Ukrainian troops encountered the drone near Kupiansk.
The image appeared to indicate that the Shahed drone had been shot down by Ukrainian forces and had not detonated as planned on impact, Kiev immediately released although little other information. A drone’s inscription identified it as an “M214 Gran-2,” but did not immediately correspond to any known Russian weaponry.
