Plant for Iranian Drones Being Built in Russia: USA Showed Proof – AP
A satellite image released by the White House on Friday indicates that Iran is providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow, which Russia uses to destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
According to AP, the White House also released satellite imagery taken in April of the industrial location, several hundred miles east of Moscow, where it believes the plant "will probably be built."
John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, informed journalists that a plant in Russia's Alabuga special economic zone could be operational early next year.
He also stated that Iran continues to supply the Russian military with one-way attack drones made in Iran: The drones are shipped via the Caspian Sea, from Amirabad in Iran to Makhachkala, Russia, and then are used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
As of May, Russia had received hundreds of one-way attack drones, as well as drone production-related equipment, from Iran, according to the White House.
"This is a full-scale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran's neighbors, and to the international community," Kirby said. "We are continuing to use all the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities, including by sharing this with the public — and we are prepared to do more," said Kirby.
Officially, Tehran acknowledged that it supplied Russia with a small batch of kamikaze drones before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, the media has repeatedly described how Moscow receives weapons from Iran.
According to the assessment of the Ukrainian side, by that time, Russia had already deployed over 400 Shahed-136 drones in Ukraine, with a total order for allegedly 2,400 such unmanned aerial vehicles. Initially, they posed a problem for Ukrainian air defences, but in recent attacks, almost all or all of them were destroyed.