October 14, 2022
The Islamic Republic every few days issues a new public denial saying it has never sold any Iranian drones to Russia to use against Ukraine. And as Iran issues new denials, Ukraine issues new announcements of the number of Iranian drones it has shot down that day.
Ukrainian President Volo-dymyr Zelensky announced October 11 that Ukrainian intelligence has learned that Russia bought 2,400 drones from Iran.
The Islamic Republic seems to be concerned that it is losing global standing by being identified as a Russian supporter and so repeats every few days that it opposes the war in Ukraine and will not support either side, and is not sending drones to Russia.
On October 12, when the UN General Assembly voted on its fourth resolution calling for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iran voted for the resolution in defiance of Moscow. It had abstained on the previous three votes. The only other two countries known to be supporting Russia’s war effort militarily North Korea and Belarus both voted with Russia against the resolution, as did Syria and Eritrea.
Iran also announced that it is not recognizing the referendums Moscow held in parts of Ukraine in which voters reportedly approved the areas being taken over by Russia. Tehran said the referendums did not meet the standards of international law.
Most of the Iranian drones the Ukrainians are seeing are the Shahed-136 model, which is a propellor-driven, delta-wing design. The Islamic Republic regularly says its drones are entirely made in Iran with all parts being Iranian-made. But the Ukrainians have said the wreckages it has inspected show the drones include such foreign-made parts as a fuel pump from Poland and a signal processor made by Texas Instruments in the US. Both those parts are commercially available. Odessa Mayor Gennedy Trukhanov told Bloomberg News the Shahed-136 “makes us nervous here.” He said they aren’t fast but they fly low so air defense troops on the ground don’t have much time to pick them out and shoot them down. And even when they are shot down, “the shrapnel can hit civilians.”
