It is well known that Russia is attacking Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with Iranian-made drones. According to a media report, the Islamic Republic is even more deeply involved in the conflict: Russian soldiers are to be trained in the use of weapons by instructors from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Crimea.
According to a report in the New York Times, Iran has sent instructors to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, to train Russians in operating Iranian drones. The newspaper cites current and former officials familiar with intelligence information. The Iranian trainers should help the Russians to deal with problems with the drone fleet acquired from Tehran. This is another sign of the growing closeness between Iran and Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine eight months ago.
In the past few days, the Russian army has increasingly shot down Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at the energy supply in Ukraine, but also at cities. Both Moscow and Tehran deny an arms deal with the drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the use of Iranian drones by Russia in his evening video address as a declaration of bankruptcy by Moscow.
According to the New York Times, the Iranian trainers operate from a Russian military base in Crimea, where many of the drones have been stationed since they were delivered from Iran. The instructors belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards. The organization is classified by the US as a terrorist organization.
The deployment of the Iranian trainers appears to coincide with the increased use of drones in Ukraine and indicates greater Iranian involvement in the war, it said. According to the officials, the Iranian instructors are far from the front lines and would be used to teach the Russians how to fly the drones. It is not known how many instructors were sent or whether they controlled the drones themselves.
Former senior Pentagon official and retired CIA officer Mick Mulroy told the newspaper: “Deploying drones and trainers to Ukraine has embroiled Iran deeply in the war on the Russian side and directly involved Tehran in operations that killed civilians and… were injured.” Even if it’s just trainers and tactical advisors in Ukraine, he thinks that’s important. Deliberate attacks on civilian targets constitute war crimes.
