Iran supplied drones to Russia, but in small numbers and a few months before the war in Ukraine. The supply of drones was first acknowledged by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, quoted by The Washington Post.
At the same time, Iran is still in favor of ending the conflict, the minister added:
“If there are any documents that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine, they should be provided to us. If this is proved to us, we will not remain indifferent to this issue.”
He added that the allegations about the supply of missiles to Russia are incorrect.
In October, the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies and a member of the public council under the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ruslan Pukhov, on the air of the RBC program, disclosed information about the presence of Iranian drones in Russia and subsequently retracted his words. Initially, Pukhov commented on the information about Iranian drones as follows: “This is a classic of stories – there is an ass, but there is no word, we all know that they are Iranian, but the authorities do not recognize it.” However, he later stated that he did not remember saying this: “Probably, this is some kind of production. Perhaps it was, or perhaps it wasn't. I don't remember, unfortunately. It was a long time ago. After covid, it’s bad with the brain.”
Russia regularly bombards Ukraine with Iranian Shahed-136s, disguising them as its own drones with the domestic name Geranium-2. At the same time, both Russia and Iran deny the supply of drones. To prove that they are Iranian, Ukraine invited UN experts. However, the Russian Federation began to blackmail the UN with the refusal of the grain deal in case the experts of the organization decide to investigate the drones. In October, Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog showed US officials photos confirming that Russia was using the Shahed-136 in the war in Ukraine. He compared photos of the engines of Iranian ammunition and drones shot down in Ukraine – they turned out to be similar.