A new report has shown that Iran will reportedly send close to 100 million bullets and close to 300,000 shells out to Russia in an effort to aid the country in its invasion of Ukraine.
Iran sent the new supplies out through a pair of Russian-flagged cargo ships which left out of Iran back in January, as reported by Sky News, a U.K.-based outlet. The shipment consisted of a large level of ammunition for mortars, machine guns, and rocket launchers in an effort to refill the invading country’s heavily diminished stockpiles.
“Iran sent two cargo ships to the combat zone in Ukraine, carrying approximately 200 new shipping containers that contained ammunition for the Russian fighting in Ukraine,” explained one security source to the U.K. outlet. “Two hundred containers on two ships are capable of carrying this amount of munitions.”
To go along with this shipment of munitions, Iran also sent out close to 10,000 flak jackets and helmets to the warring country.
“Russia pays for the ammunition in cash and by doing so, bypasses the western sanctions on it, ignoring the sanctions on Iran,” explained the source to Sky News.
Another subject expert explained to Sky News that the estimated number of munitions seemed extremely high, although he did not contradict the idea that Iran could be supplying Russia in its war targeting Ukraine.
Officials in the U.S. have previously accused Iran of sending shipments of drones out to Russia which was later on used in attacks against Ukrainian targets. Officials have discovered debris from downed drones that seem “indistinguishable” from attack drones and various unmanned aerial vehicles known to be from Iran.
Supplying drones to Russia hands the arms dealers out of Iran a chance to put their products on display in action and market it to allied nations, as expressed by a number of U.S. officials.
“They are getting to see it used on a mass level,” an official stated to reporters with the Associated Press last month. “It’s a process for them. Iran is able to see this feedback and make adjustments.”
The report regarding the involvement from Iran has come about just as a number of U.S. officials have expressed concerns about China possibly becoming much more involved in the war. Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, issued a warning just last month that such actions coming from China would put even further strain on the already rocky relations between the U.S. and China.
“The concern that we have now is, based on information we have, that they’re considering providing lethal support,” stated Blinken on CBS’s Face the Nation this past month. “And we’ve made very clear to them that that could cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship.”
