Iran ships 300,000 artillery shells and 1 million rounds of ammunition to Russia within six months – WSJ

Russian ships have been transporting large quantities of Iranian-made artillery shells and other ammunition across the Caspian Sea to resupply Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, causing an increasing problem for the United States and its allies, who are trying to disrupt cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, citing Middle Eastern officials

Details: Cargo ships have transported over 300,000 artillery shells and 1 million rounds of ammunition from Iran to Russia in the past six months, according to officials and documents seen by The Wall Street Journal.

As people familiar with the matter state, intelligence on these shipments was passed on to the United States.

Officials in the Middle East said that the last shipment of weapons known to have crossed the Caspian Sea to Russia left Iran in early March aboard cargo ship Rasul Gamzatov, a 460-foot Russian vessel. It carried 1,000 containers with 2,000 artillery shells, a previously unreported shipment.

Sky News previously reported some other shipments from Iran to Russia.

Publicly available shipping data suggests that the Rasul Gamzatov left the Iranian port of Bandar Amirabad on 8 March and arrived in Astrakhan in Russia 6 days later. The vessel sailed back to Iran in late March and left for Russia once again, staying in docks for only a day.

The vessel belongs to the Russian company MG-Flot, formerly TransMorFlot LLC. Last year, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the company, stating that 16 of its vessels, including the Rasul Gamzatov, were transporting weapons for Russia.

The company did not respond to requests for comment. The Iranian delegation to the UN and the Russian Defence Ministry also did not respond to requests for comment. The White House declined to comment on the issue.

US officials state that Iran mainly uses cargo planes to deliver weapons to Russia, making intervention almost impossible. And taking action in the Caspian Sea would require help from the former Soviet republics located on its coast.

Earlier this month, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper made an unannounced visit to Turkmenistan to discuss a range of issues, including ways to deepen cooperation and expand maritime security. He declined to comment on whether the discussion was about intercepting arms shipments in the Caspian Sea.

Russia turned to Iran for help last summer. Iran initially provided Russia with hundreds of kamikaze drones and agreed to provide Russia with more than 300,000 artillery shells. One contract from September 2022, viewed by WSJ, showed a deal between Iran’s Defense Ministry and Russia’s JSC Rosoboronexport [state intermediary agency for Russia's exports/imports of defence-related and dual-use products, technologies and services] for over 74,000 artillery shells to be sold to Russia for US $1.7 million.

Several months ago, the United States and other allies of Ukraine stressed that Iran was ready to send ballistic missiles to Russia. However, according to US and foreign experts, this has not happened yet.

Middle Eastern officials say Russia has not yet sent Iran advanced Su-35 fighter jets. However, a group of Iranians recently visited a factory in Russia’s east that produces these modern jet fighters. This could be a sign that the deal is moving forward.

Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Iran’s relationship with Russia is gradually moving from transactional to strategic. "Russia is now dependent on Iran for the first time in the broad scope of the Russia-Iran relationship. It’s a historic shift".

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