According to a new report from the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian military is converting Iran-made drones and camouflaging them with Russian military markings for use in the Ukraine war.
“Ukraine’s General Directorate of Military Intelligence (GUR) reported on November 1 that Iranian officials intend to send a shipment of more than 200 Shahed-136, Mohajer-6 and Arash-2 combat drones to Russia,” the institute said for the Study of War (ISW) said in a Russian offensive campaign on Tuesday. “The GUR reported that Iran will send the drones to Russia in a disassembled state and that Russian personnel will assemble them with Russian markings.”
As the report noted, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Military Intelligence said on Tuesday that Russia is expected to receive hundreds of new drones from Iran earlier this month. “Drones will arrive in disassembled condition. In the future, they will be collected on the territory of the Russian Federation, repainted and given Russian markings, in particular ‘Geranium-2’,” said the Main Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine.
Ukrainian police officers inspect a crashed Russian drone March 22, 2022 in the area of a research institute part of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine after a strike in northwest Kyiv March 22, 2022. On Tuesday, 1 War said, that Russia receives drones from Iran in parts and plans to assemble them with their own markings. FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images
The report by the ISW and the Main Directorate of Ukraine’s military intelligence comes amid the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly claimed that the Russian military is using Iranian-made drones, saying they have shot down hundreds of them.
Last month, Ukraine also announced that in addition to the Shahed-136 drones, Iran is sending Russia Arash-2 drones, which the ISW previously said are “allegedly faster and more destructive.”
Speaking to Newsweek last month, Katherine Lawlor, a senior intelligence analyst at the ISW, explained that: “The only reason it would be more effective than the Shahed-136 is if it could go a lot faster if it had some sort of could have stealth skills. I don’t have evidence of this, but the Iranians have claimed it’s faster and bigger.
Lawlor also told Newsweek that the Russian military has demonstrated over the course of the ongoing war that its use of drones is designed to “create a terror effect on Ukrainian civilians … not to achieve dramatic change on the battlefield.”
The ISW’s latest report also noted that since Ukraine first accused Russia of using Iranian-made drones in September, defense forces “shot down more than 300 Shahed-136 drones.”
However, Iran has continued to deny reports that it has supplied military equipment to Russia. In a statement in October, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the allegations were “unfounded”.
Newsweek has reached out to the ISW and the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.