In its daily assessment of the course of the war against Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said Ukrainian forces had reported shooting down at least 24 Iranian Shahed-136s between late January and early February.
“And many were destroyed in the early days of the year,” British defense analysts said.
Russia has used missiles and drones, including Iran’s, in a recent campaign to systematically destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Iran acknowledged in November that it had supplied Russia with drones, but said it was only “a small number” before war broke out.
The British ministry believed that while Iranian ‘drones’ “do not have a good track record of destroying intended targets”, Moscow intends to continue using them to divert Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defenses from “more effective cruise missiles”.
“Russia will probably look for a supply,” British defense analysts admitted.
Several Western leaders, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, have expressed fears in recent days that China could supply arms to Russia.
“We see some signs that they may be planning this,” Stoltenberg said in Warsaw on Thursday.
“NATO allies, the United States, have warned about this because this is something that should not happen,” he said.
The German magazine Der Spiegel even reported on Friday that the Chinese company Xian Bingo Intelligent Aviation Technology was negotiating the sale of up to 100 “drones” to Moscow to support the war effort on Ukrainian soil.
Arms sales to Russia are a “red line” for Kiev’s allies, which has been broadly marked in recent days.
“China must not support Russia’s illegal war,” Stoltenberg said in Warsaw, echoing the position of NATO allies.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 sparked a full-scale war that plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
The number of civilian and military casualties from the conflict is unknown, but several sources, including the UN, have admitted it will be high.
Ukraine’s Western allies marked the first anniversary of the war by announcing increased military aid to Kiev and new sanctions against Russia.
Source: DN
