Iran not yet sending missiles to Russia due to threat of severe sanctions - Budanov

Iran has not yet transferred its cruise missiles to Russia to be used in the war on Ukraine due to the looming threat of harsh international sanctions.

The chief of Ukraine's military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said this in an interview with the New York Times, Ukrinform reports.

According to Budanov, since October, approximately every 10 days, the Russian military has bombarded Ukraine's energy infrastructure with missiles and drones, firing about 75 cruise missiles in each salvo. At the same time, having no own capacity to replenish its missile arsenal, Moscow is trying to get missiles from Tehran, offering, in turn, to share its scientific know-how in military industry.

“Iran is not hurrying to do this, for understandable reasons, because as soon as Russia fires the first missiles the sanctions pressure will grow,” said Budanov.

He noted said that, under the contract concluded this summer, Russia purchased from Iran 1,700 Shahed kamikaze drones, which are being delivered to the aggressor state in separate batches.

To date, according to intelligence, the Russians have used about 540 drones to strike Ukraine's energy infrastructure, most of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces.

At the same time, according to Budanov, the main advantage of Iranian kamikaze drones is their low production cost, which is about $7,000 per UAV. Although, he added, it is currently "unclear how much Iran actually charged Russia for the weapons."

As reported by Ukrinform, the head of Israeli intelligence (Mossad), David Barnea, said that Iran was preparing to expand supplies to Russia of advanced types of weapons.