russia has almost exhausted its stockpile of Iranian drones — British intelligence
The russian federation has probably already almost used up its stockpile of Iranian kamikaze drones for strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine and will seek to replenish them.
Rubryka writes about this, referring to the intelligence review of the British Ministry of Defense.
British intelligence noted that since September, russia has likely launched hundreds of Iranian-manufactured uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine.
It was a mixture of one-way attack (OWA) UAVs and more traditional reusable armed systems.
Intelligence noted that the russian federation mainly used these weapons against tactical military targets and the Ukrainian electricity grid.
"However, recently, russian commanders likely also wanted Iranian-sourced UAVs to prioritize medical facilities as targets of opportunity and strike them with guided munitions if identified," the review emphasized.
British intelligence believes that russia likely conceived of the UAV campaign to make up for its severe shortage of cruise missiles, but the approach has had limited success. Most UAVs launched have been neutralized.
"No OWA UAVs strikes have been publicly reported since around 17 November 2022. russia has likely very nearly exhausted its current stock but will probably seek resupply.
"russia can probably procure UAVs from overseas more rapidly than it can manufacture new cruise missiles domestically," British intelligence said.
We will remind that, according to the mass media, Iran and russia concluded an agreement on the production of drones on russian territory.
In addition, British intelligence emphasized that russia has changed its war strategy by launching massive missile strikes on Ukraine, while it forced to deplete its reserves of cruise missiles.
And also, according to the report of the British Ministry of Defense, russia made the largest issue of debt obligations to finance the war it is waging against Ukraine, attracting 820 billion rubles for this.
