Russia bought 1,700 unmanned Shahed kamikaze drones from Iran, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, told the New York Times, writes The Kyiv Independent.

With the improvement of Ukraine’s air defense, most drones are shot down without reaching their targets, the head of intelligence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted, adding that Russia has already used about 540 drones against Ukraine.

So far, Iran has refused to transfer ballistic missiles to Russia.

“Iran is in no hurry to do this for obvious reasons, because as soon as Russia launches the first missiles, sanctions pressure will increase on Iran,” Budanov said.

Since September, Russia has been attacking Ukraine with Iranian-made kamikaze drones, targeting civilians and destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced on December 19 that Russia received a new batch of 250 Iranian Shahed-136 drones.

Iranian drones with foreign parts

In November, the Ukrainian non-profit organization StateWatch and the non-governmental independent anti-corruption commission published an investigation that showed that Iranian-made drones, except for the engine, consist entirely of foreign-made parts.

More than 30 EU and US companies were identified among those whose parts were used to manufacture these drones.

According to CNN, the US has created a task force to investigate how Western technology, including US microelectronics, got into the Iranian-made kamikaze drones used by Russia to attack energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

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