The Russian Federation is attempting to source more drones and “hundreds” of missiles from the Islamic Republic of Iran in order to sustain its campaign of strategic strikes against Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) believes.
In its Saturday intelligence update on the progress of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the British government ministry asserted that “Iran has become one of Russia’s top military backers” and that Tehran’s “support to the Russian military is likely to grow in the coming months” — particularly emphasizing Moscow’s efforts to source “hundreds of ballistic missiles” from the Islamist country.
“In return Russia is highly likely offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their defense relationship,” the MoD suggested — Russia having nuclear expertise and knowledge of things like stealth technology likely to be useful to the Iranian regime, given most advanced states have an at best arms-length relationship with it.
The British suggested, not for the first time, that Russia has “highly likely expended a large proportion of its stock of its own SS-26 Iskander short range ballistic missiles” — although Western and Ukrainian officials have long speculated that Russian forces must be running out of missiles, only for them to progressively increase the scale of their strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure as the year progresses.
