Ukrainian soldiers use a launcher with U.S.-made Javelin missiles during military exercises in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on December 23, 2021. Photo: Ukrainian Defense Ministry Press Service.
Russia shipped €140m in cash and a selection of captured Western-made weapons to Iran as a payment for dozens of drones which will be used in the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, Sky News reported on November 13, citing an security source.
The unnamed source told the British TV network that a Russian military aircraft secretly transported the cash and three models of weapons to an airport in Tehran early on August 20. The weapons were a British-made NLAW anti-tank missile as well as an FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile and an FIM-92 Stinger man-portable air-defense system made by the United States.
According to the source, the weapons had been part of a shipment of UK and U.S. military equipment intended for Ukrainian forces that “fell into Russian hands”.
To prove these claims, the source shared with Sky News satellite imagery that they said showed two Russian the Ilyushin IL-76 military cargo aircraft at Mehrabad airport in Tehran. One of aircraft was believed to have transported the €140m and the captured Western weapons.
The first image, time-stamped 1.17am in the morning on August 20, showed two aircraft, highlighted by red lines, in the Iranian airport. In the second image, taken at 3.32am, one of the aircraft had moved to the runway and the other had turned around. In the last image, marked just past 7:00, both aircraft appeared to have gone.
1.17am local time – satellite image shared with Sky News shows two planes in Mehrabad International Airport.
3.32am local time – satellite image shared with Sky News shows two planes have moved in the airport.
7.01am local time – satellite image shared with Sky News shows the planes have gone from the airport.
The source claimed that one or both of the aircraft departed back to Russia carrying a new shipment of Iranian drones, including 100 Shahed-136 suicide drones, 60 of the smaller Shahed-131 suicide drones and six Mohajer-6 reconnaissance and combat drones.
In the recent weeks, the Russian military attacked dozens of targets in Ukraine with new suicide drones, the Geran-1 and 2, which are said to be copies of Iran’s Shahed-131 and 136. The Shahed-131 has a range of 900 kilometers and a 20 kg warhead, while the Shahed-136 has a range of up to 2,500 kilometers and a 40 kg warhead.
The Russian military has been also using Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drones against Ukrainian forces. The combat drone is capable of carrying a multispectral reconnaissance payload and up to four precision-guided munitions. The drone has an endurance of more than 12 hours and an operational range of 200-500 kilometers.
According to Sky News source, Western weapons supplied by Russia could give Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the ability to study Western technology and potentially copy it.
“We think that the Iranians have proven that they have an efficient reverse-engineering system, as we can see with the UAVs they have reverse-engineered from the US’s UAV captured in 2011,” the source said.
“It seems that Iran also wants to benefit from the war [in Ukraine] by receiving from the Russians Western capabilities that will be useful for them in the future – as happened in the past.”
In August, Russia denied that its military had used Iranian drones in Ukraine operation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that only Russian-made weapons are being used in the special military operation.
Several recent reports in the mainstream media, MSM, said that Iran also supplied or preparing to supply ballistic missiles to Russia. These reports are yet to materialize. Military cooperation between Russia and Iran is not new. It never been under the scope of the MSM as much as now, however. The West is apparently trying to use the conflict in Ukraine as an excuse to attack both countries.
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