Russia has stopped launching Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones from the territory of the annexed Crimea. This is reported by the British Ministry of Defense.
The agency attributes this to the fact that the Russian authorities fear for the security of the peninsula and its vulnerability. The latest series of strikes against Ukraine were carried out mainly by air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, but likely included Iranian drones as well. Now, according to intelligence, they are launched from the Krasnodar Territory. This allows Russia to replenish their stocks faster, since the likely point of arrival of weapons in Russia is in Astrakhan.
In late November, the British Ministry of Defense reported that Russia was running out of Iranian drones. The agency claims that the Russian army launched them to compensate for a severe shortage of cruise missiles, but this approach was not successful, as most of the drones were shot down. On December 7, Russia again attacked Ukraine with Iranian UAVs for the first time in three weeks.
