Russia wants to achieve self-sufficiency in attack drones rather than relying on Iranian imports to support its war in Ukraine, UK military chiefs said on Wednesday.
The assessment came as the US administration pushes Iran to stop selling the drones to Russia as part of a broader effort to de-escalate tensions between Washington and Tehran, the Financial Times reported.
“Russia has almost certainly started to deploy domestically produced one-way attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA-UAVs) based on Iranian Shahed designs. Russian forces have been importing Iranian-made systems since September 2022,” Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.
“Indigenous manufacturing will likely allow Russia to establish a more reliable supply of OWA-UAVs. The performance of these weapons has been variable and Ukraine has proved effective in neutralising the majority of incoming OWA-UAVs,” it said.
“Russia likely aims for self-sufficiency in OWA-UAVs in the coming months. However, in the interim, Russia remains reliant on components and whole weapons from Iran, primarily shipped via the Caspian Sea.”
According to the FT report, the United States is also trying to persuade Iran to stop selling spare parts for the unmanned aircraft to Russia.
The newspaper cited an Iranian official and another person familiar with the talks. The two sides have also been bidding to revive talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, and on a possible prisoner swap.
While Russian drones have pummelled Ukraine, several unmanned aerial attacks have also struck the Moscow region in recent weeks, although Ukraine has been coy about claiming responsibility.
Russian air defence systems destroyed three Ukrainian drones early on Wednesday over the Kaluga region north of Moscow, Russia’s defence ministry said. There were no casualties and no damage in the attempted attack, it said.
Grain silos and warehouses were meanwhile damaged in overnight Russian drone attacks at one of Ukraine’s Danube river ports.
“Russian terrorists attacked Odessa region twice last night with attack drones. The main target is port and grain infrastructure in the south of the region," Odessa Governor Oleh Kiper said.
He did not specify which port was attacked. Ukraine has two main ports on the Danube River which have both been attacked before - Reni and Izmail.
