Russia, apparently, has again exhausted its stocks of Iranian kamikaze drones and will replenish them. The British Ministry of Defense came to this conclusion based on the fact that for about 10 days the Russian Armed Forces had not attacked Ukraine with Iranian drones.
“The lack of drone deployment is likely an indication that Russia has reduced its current stockpile. The Russian Federation is likely to seek resupply,” British military intelligence said.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that they shot down at least 24 Shahed-136 drones between January and early February 2023.
“While these weapons do not perform well in destroying targets, Russia probably sees them as a useful bait that can divert Ukrainian air defenses from more effective Russian cruise missiles,” the intelligence said.
The day before, Der Spiegel wrote that China is going to supply Russia with kamikaze drones, which it plans to use in the war against Ukraine. The newspaper stressed that Moscow and Beijing are already negotiating. We are talking about buying a hundred drones. According to Der Spiegel, the Chinese drone maker Xi'an Bingo Intelligent Aviation Technology is the supplier. It has agreed to provide Russia with prototypes of its ZT-180 UAVs by April 2023. Military experts believe that in their design they will be similar to the Iranian Shahed-136.