Alleged Russian use of Iranian drones

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Kiev - October 17, 2022
See also Shahed 136
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US and pro-Ukrainian claims

Evidence provided by Ukrainians Source
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that the administration has “information that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several hundred UAVs.” UAVs are unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. “We assess an official Russian delegation recently received a showcase of Iranian attack-capable UAVs. We are releasing these images captured in June showing Iranian UAVs that the Russian government delegation saw that day,” Sullivan added. “This suggests ongoing Russian interest in acquiring Iranian attack-capable UAVs.”
Shahed-136 is an Iranian kamikaze drone, which russia tried to disguise under the name M412 Geran-2 in Ukraine
In its first use in Ukraine, the Iranian drone blew up a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer used by the Ukrainian military, Col. Rodion Kulagin, commander of artillery operations in the Kharkiv counteroffensive, said in an interview.

Geran/Geran2 (Geranium) Identity and Production

Wikipedia pages for Geran 1 and Geran 2 currently redirect to pages for Shahed 131 and Shahed 136 respectively.

Responding to allegations Dimitry Peskov is on record that: “The hardware that is used is Russian. You know that,” ... “It has Russian names...”

Pro-Russian claims

Criticism/rebuttals of claims

The Washington Post notes the weird timing of Sullivan's claims thereby hinting that it was made for purely political purposes which have nothing to do with Russia
See also twitter thread by @yarbatman

Official Iranian statements

American officials have claimed since July that Tehran was preparing to sell “hundreds” of the aircraft to Moscow, and later said Iran also trained Russian pilots on how to use the drones. Iran’s foreign ministry previously rejected the claims, saying the country will not assist either side of the war,...
He emphasized that "Iran is of the firm belief that none of its arms exports, including UAVs, to any country” violate the Resolution 2231.
"We have a lot of cooperation with Russia, including in the field of defense. In the past, we have taken and given weapons from and to Russia, but not during the war in Ukraine."

Ukrainian responses

Kiev - October 17, 2022

UkrOboronProm

  • UkrOboronProm, Telegram, October 17, 2022
    The range is 1000 km, the weight of the warhead is 75 kg. We are finalizing the development.

Israeli factor

Tehran dispatched officials to Russia on Sept. 18 to finalize terms for additional weapons shipments, including two types of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles, according to officials from a U.S.-allied country that closely monitors Iran’s weapons activity.
An intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and U.S. officials contends that Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment...The officials spoke on the condition that their names and nationalities not be revealed because of the extreme sensitivities surrounding intelligence-collection efforts...U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment on the reports of pending Iranian shipments to Russia.
"I think Israel can help even more," said Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence. He described Israel's "knowledge on how to handle aerial attacks, its "intelligence about Iranian weapons and "ability to jam them as potentially crucial to Ukraine.
Herzog’s office in a statement said he would share images assessed by Israel that show similarities between drones downed in Ukraine and parts tested in Iran in December 2021 and displayed at an exposition in Iran in 2014.

Israeli anti-drone systems

Analysis