“Ukraine’s Central Intelligence Directorate (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 O Study Institute said War (ISW) said in an assessment of the Russian offensive campaign on Tuesday. “GUR said that Iran will send the drones to Russia in a disassembled state and that Russian personnel will assemble them with Russian markings.” As noted in the report, on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Military Intelligence said that early this month, Russia is expected to receive hundreds of new drones from Iran. “The unmanned aerial vehicles will arrive in a disassembled state. In the future, on the territory of the Russian Federation, they will be collected, repainted and fitted with Russian markings, especially ‘Geranium-2,’” the Main Military Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine said. Ukrainian police officers inspect a Russian drone that was shot down in the area of a research institute, part of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, after a strike, northwest of Kyiv, March 22, 2022. On Tuesday, November 1, the War Research Institute said that the Russia receives drones from Iran in parts and plans to assemble them with their own markings. FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images The report by ISW and the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Military Intelligence comes amid the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly claimed that the Russian military is using Iranian drones, and that they have shot down hundreds of them. Last month, Ukraine also announced that in addition to the Shahed-136 drones, Iran was sending Russia Arash-2 drones, which ISW had previously said were “supposed to be faster and more destructive.” Speaking to Newsweek last month, Katherine Lawlor, senior intelligence analyst at ISW, explained that: “The only reason it would be more effective than the Shahed-136 is if it can go much faster, if it can have some sort of I have no proof that this is the case, but the Iranians have claimed that it is faster and bigger.” Lawlor also told Newsweek that during the ongoing war, the Russian military has shown that its use of drones is “to achieve a terrorizing effect on Ukrainian civilians…not to achieve a dramatic change on the battlefield.” ISW’s most recent report also said that since Ukraine first accused Russia of using Iranian drones in September, defense forces have “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, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the accusations were “baseless.” Newsweek has reached out to ISW and the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
