Russian-Iranian Cooperation Using the Caspian Route to Transport Drones and Weapons for Military Aggression Against Ukraine

As cooperation between the two Moscow and Tehran deepens, experts say, the Caspian route is being used to transport drones, bullets and mortar shells that the Russian government has purchased from Iran to support its full-scale military aggression against Ukraine.

According to monitoring data, ships in the region are increasingly becoming “dark”, indicating a growing desire to hide the movement of goods, the publication says.

In 2022, data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence revealed a September spike in the number of data gaps in vessel tracking data in the Caspian. This came shortly after Kyiv and Washington said that Moscow bought drones from Tehran last summer.

Russian use of Iranian drones increased last fall, including against critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

“There is no risk to Iranian exports in the Caspian Sea because of the bordering countries – they have no ability or motive to ban these kinds of exchanges,” Martin Kelly, a leading intelligence analyst at security firm EOS Risk Group, said in a statement.

A route across the Caspian Sea through which Iran can transfer weapons and drones to the Russian Federation (photo: cnn.com)

It is noted that Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan are other countries with ports on the Caspian Sea, and, the analyst adds, this is “an ideal environment for this deal to meet resistance.”

Large-scale attack by “Shaheds” on Ukraine on May 28

On the night of this Sunday, the Russian invaders staged a massive drone attack on Ukraine, and the enemy sent most of the Shaheds to Kyiv. The air defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down all the attack UAVs of the enemy, while as a result of the fall of debris in some areas there were destruction and fires, one person died.

In the morning after this large-scale attack, the speaker of the Defense Forces of the South of Ukraine, Natalia Gumenyuk, admitted that the Russian Federation could receive a new batch of Shahed kamikaze drones from Iran.

These Shahed-129/191 drones are unmanned aerial vehicles capable of carrying precision-guided munitions and can also be used for surveillance.

According to an investigative report obtained exclusively by CNN in early 2023, Iran appears to be modifying drones so that their explosive warheads can cause maximum damage to infrastructure in Ukraine.