The british secret services have reported this Saturday that Russia has exhausted its stocks of Iranian drones and I would already be looking for ways to replace these devices.
“There has been no news of Iranian suicide drone attacks in Ukraine since February 15, 2023,” it reported. the British Ministry of Defense in a statement published this Sunday.
In addition, the report states that at least 24 Iranian Shahed-136 drones from the end of January to the beginning of February, which would have to be added to the “tens” of these planes shot down in the first days of the year.
“This lack of use of drones indicates that Russia has probably run out of reserves. Russia will probably want to resupply ”, she pointed out.
London acknowledges that “these weapons do not have a good target kill rate, but Russia surely views them as useful decoys that can distract Ukrainian air defenses from the much more effective Russian cruise missiles.”
The Iranian Shahed, which Russia has renamed Geran-2, it has an explosive charge and can hover over its targets before attacking. They can be launched in rapid succession from platforms and their distinctive A-shaped design makes them easy to identify.
“He Shahed 136 is a suicide drone fairly large and inexpensive to manufacture. It reaches its target by GPS coordinates entered before takeoff. Then it advances autonomously, flying quite low and reaching a target set hundreds of kilometers away,” said Pierre Grasser, a French researcher associated with the Sirice Center in Paris.
The Ukrainian Army claims it has shot down hundreds of these Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones.
Tenth package of sanctions
The European Union adopted this Saturday the tenth package of sanctions against Russia, including, among other things, a ban on the export of technology for military use and measures against Iranian companies that supply drones to Moscow.
The Twenty-seven reached an agreement at the ambassadorial level this Friday.”in extremis”, coinciding with the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and until 11:30 a.m. today to endorse the agreement. The sanctions will be published in the next few hours. in the Official Journal of the EU as the last step.
“We now have the largest sanctions ever imposed, depleting Russia’s war arsenal and biting deep into its economy. We are also increasing the pressure on those who try to circumvent our sanctions,” the president of the European Commission said on Twitter. Ursula von der Leyen.
“The tenth package of sanctions is adopted”, celebrated in the same social network the high representative of Foreign Affairs of the EU, Josep Borrellwho added that the block “remains committed to his determination to make a dent in Russia’s war machine”.
Negotiations between the EU countries had stalled in recent hours due to the volume of synthetic rubber quotas that member states will be able to import from Russia, as Poland wanted to lower them, although the agreement was finally reached after more than twenty-four hours.
The agreed package includes, for example, stricter restrictions on the export of technology and dual-use itemsselective restricted measures against people and entities support the war spread propaganda either deliver drones Used by Russia in the war.
It also includes 47 electronic components that Russia can use in its weapons systems, such as drones, missiles and helicopters, in such a way that taking into account the nine previous packages all technological products will have been banned found on the battlefield.
The tenth package of reprisals against the Kremlin also sanctions seven Iranian companies linked to the Revolutionary Guard that manufacture the drones that Tehran is giving to Moscow to bomb Ukraine and initiates the procedure to suspend the broadcast licenses to RT Arabic and Sputnik Arabic.
“They are permanently under the direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation and have been used by it for its continuous and concerted actions of disinformation and war propaganda,” the EU Council explained in a statement.
The new measures include 121 Russian individuals and companies, including members of the Army “responsible for the deportation and forced adoption of at least 6,000 Ukrainian minors,” Borrell said. “This is a clear violation of international law, including the Geneva convention,” as I raised at the UN Security Council, he explained.
In the same way, enter new information obligations with respect to funds and economic resources of sanctioned persons and entities, as well as reserves and assets of the Central Bank of Russia immobilized by Member States.
On the other hand, it introduces a ban on offering gas storage capacity to Russian individuals (with the exception of part of liquefied natural gas facilities) with the aim of “protecting security of supply in the EU and preventing the supply of gas is used as a weapon of war” by Moscow.
Although not part of this tenth round of sanctions, the Twenty-seven have committed to seek formulas with the G7 to sanction the importation of Russian diamonds and, for now, they have not reached an agreement to sanction rosatomthe Russian state-owned company in charge of developing nuclear energy, as requested by Ukraine.
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir ZelenskyHe thanked the bloc for its support and precisely referred to the sanction of Rosatom.
“The tenth package of European Union sanctions targets the Russian military industry, propaganda and the financial system. The pressure on the Russian aggressor must increase: we expect decisive steps against Rosatom and the Russian nuclear industrymore pressure on the army and the banks”, he wrote on his Twitter account this Saturday.
(With information from EFE and Europa Press)
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Source-www.infobae.com