Iran Sends First Shipment of Combat Drones to Russia
Moscow is expected to use the weapons on the Ukrainian battlefield, U.S. officials say
Iran has shipped its first plane loads of combat drones to Russia, part of a deepening plan between the two countries for Moscow to use the weapons against Ukrainian forces, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
Biden administration officials said Russian cargo planes have flown at least two kinds of Iranian drones to Russia that the U.S. expects Moscow to use in Ukraine to carry out missile strikes, surveillance and electronic warfare.
The U.S. expects Tehran to deliver hundreds of drones to Russia as Moscow tries to counter the flow of military support that the U.S. and its allies are giving to Kyiv. Ukrainian forces have launched a major counteroffensive in an effort to reclaim territory in southern Ukraine that Russian seized early in the war.
The delivery underscores how Iran has emerged as one of the world’s most prolific purveyors of drone technology, which has helped its allies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, U.S. and Israeli officials have said.