Sources cited by Reuters said that Iran has supplied Russia with a large number of powerful ballistic missiles. While Iran declined to comment, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday that there was no official information that Iran had supplied Russia with hundreds of ballistic missiles.

Iran has reportedly delivered about 400 missiles, many of which belong to the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, such as the Zolfaghar, three Iranian sources said.

This missile is capable of hitting targets at a distance of 300 to 700 km, experts say.

Iran’s Defense Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards, the elite force that oversees Iran’s ballistic missile program, declined to comment. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran has reportedly made at least four deliveries of missiles to Russia

The deliveries were due to begin in early January after a deal was finalized late last year in meetings between Iranian and Russian military and security officials held in Tehran and Moscow, one of the Iranian sources said.

An Iranian military official, who along with other sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality, said there had been at least four missile deliveries and that more would follow in the coming weeks. He refused to provide more detailed information.

Another Iranian official said some of the missiles were sent to Russia by ship across the Caspian Sea, while others were delivered by plane.

“There will be more supplies,” said a second Iranian official. “There is no reason to hide it. We are allowed to export arms to any country we want.”

UN Security Council restrictions on Iran’s export of missiles, drones and other technologies expired in October. However, the United States and the European Union have maintained sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program over concerns about arms exports to its Middle Eastern proxies and Russia.

A fourth source familiar with the matter confirmed that Russia recently received a large number of missiles from Iran, without providing further details.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said in early January that the United States was concerned that Russia was close to acquiring short-range ballistic weapons from Iran in addition to the missiles it already has from North Korea.

Ukraine’s attorney general said Friday that ballistic missiles sent by North Korea to Russia proved unreliable on the battlefield, with only two of the 24 missiles hitting their targets.

Both Moscow and North Korea deny that Pyongyang supplied Russia with ammunition used in Ukraine.

Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles will give Russia an even greater advantage on the battlefield

Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, said the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar family of missiles are highly accurate weapons. “They’re used to target high-value items that require precise damage,” Lewis explained, adding that 400 missiles can do significant damage.

For his part, Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies, a think tank in Philadelphia, said the Fateh-100 and Zolfaghar missiles would give Russia an even greater advantage on the battlefield. “They can be used to hit military targets at operational depth, and ballistic missiles are more difficult to intercept by Ukrainian air defense,” Lee explained.

Ukraine declares that Russia received missiles from Iran, which is official information

On Wednesday, the spokesman of the Air Force of Ukraine said that there is no official information that Iran has supplied Russia with hundreds of ballistic missiles.

“So far, our official sources have no information about the receipt of missiles, especially such a quantity,” Yuriy Ignat said on national television.

After Russia’s success in Avdiivka and as Putin orders Russian troops to push deeper into Ukraine, Western officials cited by Reuters say Kremlin forces do not have enough domestic ammunition production to meet the needs of the war against Kyiv.