Washington
15 May 2023

A White House spokesperson indicated that Iran “continues to provide Russia with one-way attack UAVs. Since August, Iran has provided Russia with more than 400 UAVs primarily of the Shahed variety… Russia has expended most of these UAVs, using them to target Ukrainian critical infrastructure inside Ukraine. By providing Russia with these UAVs, Iran has been directly enabling Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine”. He further noted that “Russia has been offering Iran unprecedented defence cooperation including on missiles, electronics, air defence… The partnership between Russia and Iran is directly enabling Iran's destabilising activities in the Middle East, posing a threat not just to Ukraine, of course, but also to Iran's neighbours”.

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