The Iranian authorities secretly supplied Russia with a large batch of ammunition for the war in Ukraine and plan to continue deliveries, Sky News writes, citing an anonymous source in law enforcement agencies.
The interlocutor of the TV channel claims that on January 10, the Musa Jalil and Begey cargo ships under the Russian flag departed from the Iranian port, carrying about 200 transport containers with weapons. On January 12, the ships called at one of the ports of Turkmenistan, and then crossed the Caspian Sea and arrived at the port of Astrakhan on January 27, the source said.
According to him, about 100 million cartridges of various sizes were transported in containers, as well as about 300,000 shells, including for rocket and artillery installations, grenade launchers, mortars and machine guns. In addition, about 10 thousand body armor and helmets were transported on board.
Moscow allegedly paid Tehran for the supply of ammunition in cash.
The source expressed confidence in his estimate of the amount of ammunition carried. However, the TV channel notes that it cannot independently verify and confirm it. One of the experts interviewed told Sky News that the number of ammunition delivered seemed to be too high.
Russia is actively using Iranian weapons in the war in Ukraine. Since the fall of 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry has been using Iranian-made Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones, which the Russian military is renaming Geran-1 and Geran-2, to attack military and energy facilities in Ukraine.
In February 2023, The Guardian newspaper wrote that Iran had transferred a batch of reusable long-range attack drones to Russia. Western media have repeatedly written that the authorities of Russia and Iran are agreeing on the possibility of building a plant for the production of drones on the territory of the Russian Federation.
It was also reported that Iran is going to supply Russia with Fateh-110 and Zulfikar ballistic missiles, the range of which is 300 and 700 kilometers, respectively. In early March, the Financial Times wrote that Russia has so far refrained from buying ballistic missiles from Iran due to fears that after that the United States will begin to supply Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles.
