Iran is sending materials to Russia to help Moscow build a drone manufacturing plant that could be operational next year, part of a “deepening” military partnership between the two countries, the Biden administration said Friday.
Officials also said that Tehran provided hundreds of armed drones to Russia last month for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Warning of growing defense ties between Iran and Russia, the Biden administration released a satellite photo of what it believes is the planned location of a drone production plant in the Alabuga special economic zone in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
The White House also described how Iranian-made drones are transported to Russia, releasing a graphic to illustrate the route.
The drones are “shipped across the Caspian Sea, from Amirabad, Iran, to Makhachkala, Russia, and then used operationally by Russian forces against Ukraine,” John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
“As of May, Russia received hundreds of one-way attack UAVs, as well as UAV production-related equipment, from Iran,” added Kirby, using a military acronym for drones, unmanned aerial vehicles.
Kirby said that Russia had used Iranian drones in recent weeks to strike Kyiv, which has experienced a vast uptick in aerial attacks.
He said that Moscow has been “offering Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics, and air defense” in return for Iran’s supplying kamikaze drones to Russia.
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