The United States is seeing signs that Russia is proposing to help the Iranians on their missile programme, and at least considering the possibility of providing fighter aircraft to Iran, in exchange for military aid in their ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

As CNN reports, William Burns, CIA Director, said the alliance between Russia and Iran is developing rapidly, an emerging narrative that he called "disturbing."

"It's moving at a pretty fast clip in a very dangerous direction right now, in the sense that we know that the Iranians have already provided hundreds of armed drones to the Russians, which they're using to inflict pain on Ukrainian civilians and Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. We know that they've provided, you know, ammunition for artillery and for tanks as well," Burns said.

Burns previously said the U.S. was confident China considered sending lethal aid to Russia, but Beijing has not yet made a final decision.

As reported, the British Defence Secretary believes that Russia has probably exhausted the reserves of Iranian drones (Ukr), but is looking for ways to replenish them.