Russia starts receiving regular supplies of Shahed kamikaze drones – UK Intelligence

The UK Intelligence analysed the situation with Russia's use of Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones in its Sunday review.

Source: The Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom, quoted by European Pravda

Details: Since the beginning of March 2023, Russia has likely launched at least 71 Iranian-designed Shahed series one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA-UAVS) against targets across Ukraine.

These attacks followed a two-week pause in OWA-UAV attacks in late February 2023. Russia has likely started receiving regular resupplies of small numbers of Shahed OWA-UAVs.

Russia is likely launching Shaheds from two axes: from Russia’s Krasnodar Krai in the east and from Bryansk Oblast in the north-east.

This allows Russia flexibility to target a broad sector of Ukraine and decreases flying time to targets in the north of Ukraine. It is also likely to be a further attempt to stretch Ukrainian air defences.

Background: 

• On 9 March 2023, the US imposed sanctions on Chinese companies that supplied components for Shahed drones to Iran. 
• In the meantime, media outlets found out that Iran had used boats and a state-owned airline to transfer Shahed drones to Russia.

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