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This Monday, the Russians again attacked Kyiv with kamikaze drones. One of them targeted a residential building in Zhylianska Street. At least five people died, including a young couple who were expecting a child.
The enemy once again used Iranian Shahed-136 UAVs against civilians. Russian Armed Forces use it under the title Geran-2. It was this “renaming” that helped Russians and Iranians alike to claim that there were no Iranian drones in Ukraine.
But this is an obvious lie. Back at the end of the summer, the American media reported that Iran handed over the first batch of drones of the Shahed and Mohajer families to Russia. On August 31, the White House confirmed this information. Tehran and the Kremlin denied it. Meanwhile, since the end of July, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels diligently advertised Iranian UAVs as “wunderwaffe,” which would help turn the tide of the war in Russia’s favour.
As soon as in September, during the counteroffensive in Kharkiv oblast, the Armed Forces of Ukraine caught the first Shahed-136 drone with an inscription “Geran-2” on its tail.
At the end of the month, Ukrainian anti-aircraft fighters shot down a Mohajer-6 equipped with an Iranian Ghaem-5 guided air bomb. A drone with flight number ER-860 fell into the Black Sea near the coast of Odesa.
It was this UAV that a Ukrainian intelligence officer demonstrated to the CNN crew working in Kyiv following the October 17 attack on the capital.
The story provides evidence of Russia’s and Iran’s lies, as both continue to deny the use of Iranian drones against Ukraine.
While Russians are trying to pass off the Shahed-136 drones as “Russian” Gerans, the situation with Mohajer-6 is even simpler.
This Iranian weapon was demonstrated at exhibitions multiple times, and Iranian media wrote about it.
The UAV model was one of the Iranian exhibits at the Army 2022 exhibition in Kubinka near Moscow in August this year and at ADEX-2022 (Azerbaijan International Defence Exhibition) in Baku in September.
An inscription in Farsi on one of its parts proves the Iranian origin of the drone shot down over the Ukrainian sea.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday, October 19, that the United States had ample evidence that Iran was supplying Russia with drones, and those were being used to attack Ukrainian critical infrastructure and civilians. He added that the US would initiate new sanctions against Iran to render these supplies impossible. The European Union agreed to strengthen anti-Iranian sanctions in record time: they will freeze assets of three individuals and one legal entity.
Cooperation between Tehran and the Kremlin is not limited to the supply of weapons. According to CNN, Iran sent specialists to the occupied territory of Ukraine, in particular to Crimea, to train the Russian military in the use of drones.
Meanwhile, Iran’s representative at the UN, Amir Said Iravani, said that his country “categorically denies” supplying UAVs to Russia. Realizing the weakness of his position, first deputy representative of the Russian Federation at the UN Dmitry Polyansky has resorted to blackmail, claiming they will disrupt the “grain agreement” if the UN begins an investigation into the supply of Iranian drones to Russia.
Hiding a blatant lie is getting harder every day. Especially if you don’t try very hard. On October 19, Ruslan Pukhov, the head of the Russian Centre for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a member of the public council under the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, asked TV presenters not to call Iranian drones Iranian.
“We’re not going to rock this boat, so I’m asking you very much about these Iranian… Because it’s a typical story, we are in a situation we cannot explain. We all know that they are Iranian, but the authorities are not recognizing it,” said Pukhov. He later complained of memory problems after contracting COVID-19.
Is Russia lying again? How unexpected. Ruslan Pukhov, a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defence, a military analyst, did not know that the microphone had already been turned on. So, he asks the hosts not to discuss Iranian drones during the live broadcast. pic.twitter.com/84mtId800e
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) October 20, 2022