Russia intends to start producing Iranian Shahed drones domestically to use in Ukraine, Kyiv claimed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces have regularly used the Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones—which they renamed Geran-1 and Geran-2—in Ukraine and the weapons are playing a key role in the war.
In an interview with the Kyiv Post, published Monday, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said that Russia was planning to make the drones and that his government had already determined where the weapons could be manufactured.
"One of the cities, where they plan to set up the production factory is Togliatti," Danilov said on national TV on Sunday. "Although there are also other cities."
Togliatti is in Western Russia, southeast of Moscow, on the Volga River.
"Our intelligence works flawlessly, and we understand in advance what steps they are planning to take," Danilov added.
Danilov said he was not sure how Russia and Iran would be able to mass produce the weapons when both countries are hit by international sanctions.
"What they [Russians] will assemble their drones from is a big question," he said.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Department of Defense for comment.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said on Saturday that Moscow was quickly burning through its stockpile of Shahed drones as the invasion approaches its year anniversary. Russian forces have used up 88 percent of their cache of Shahed drones, meaning Moscow's forces would have just 90 Iranian-made UAVs left, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov claimed in a Twitter post on Friday. Overall, it is reported that Moscow has ordered 1,700 Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to use in the war.
The drones are 11 feet long and reach a top speed of about 115 mph. They are distinctive in the low buzzing sound they emit, and are designed to carry a warhead that explodes or shatters when it reaches its target.
Meanwhile, Western countries have pledged to increase and step up their weapons supplies to Ukraine. Last week, France became the first Western country to send tanks to Ukraine, moving to supply the French-made AMX-10 RCs—which have been in service since the 1980s—to Kyiv.
During a Monday news conference, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that new Western arms being supplied to Ukraine would only "prolong suffering the suffering of the Ukrainian people."
"This supply will not be able to change anything," he said.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Jack Dutton is a Newsweek Reporter based in Cape Town, South Africa. His focus is reporting on global politics and ... Read more
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