According to Sky News, two Russian military cargo planes landed at Tehran airport early on August 20 carrying cash, a US Javelin anti-tank missile, a Stinger anti-aircraft missile and a British NLAW anti-tank missile. Missiles destined for Ukraine “fell into Russian hands” and could be used by the Iranians for reverse engineering, the source said. “It seems that Iran also wants to profit from the war by getting from the Russians western capabilities that will be useful to them in the future,” they said. In exchange for the $141 million and the US-UK missiles, Russia reportedly received 100 Shahed-136 drones, 60 smaller Shahed-131 drones and six Mohajer-6 unmanned aerial vehicles. Sky News reported that the source shared satellite images showing two Russian military cargo planes parked for about three and a half hours at Tehran airport in the early hours of August 20 as evidence of the deal. At least five Russian aircraft have transported drones from Iran since August 20, the source said. Moscow and Tehran have agreed in recent days to another drone deal worth $200 million, a Sky News source said, adding: “This means there will soon be another large supply of UAVs from Iran.” Ukraine has accused Russia of deploying some 400 Iranian drones in a recent barrage of attacks on civilian infrastructure, causing widespread power outages and water cuts. Kyiv also said Russia has ordered about 2,000 more drones from Iran. The Kremlin denies both claims. After repeated denials, Iran this weekend admitted that it had sent drones to Russia, but stressed that the deliveries took place before the February invasion of Ukraine. The report on Russia’s alleged drone deal with Iran comes amid claims by the Ukrainian air force this week that Tehran agreed to supply Moscow with ballistic missiles. The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it could not confirm either the Ukrainian air force spokesman’s information or the Sky News report.
