If Russia Is Enemy Number One in Ukraine, Iran Has Become Enemy Number Two

A growing exasperation — even rage — is spreading in Ukraine over Iran’s role in supplying the drones that make up the bulk of the weapons that Moscow employs for the indiscriminate nightly bombing blitz of Ukrainian cities and towns. It would not be too much to say that Iran is emerging as, after Russia, enemy number two.The Shahed pusher-prop drone is known more familiarly as the kamikaze drone and also as “flying moped” by the Ukrainian military. The reason for that is because it is a kind of loitering munition whose gasoline engine generates a loud buzz before it drops its payloads or crashes into a building, its warhead possibly exploding on impact. The 131 model has a launch range of 550 miles and the 136 model can have a trajectory of up to 1,200 miles. Or, they can be shot down. Ukraine’s air defenses have proven adept at shooting most of the Shaheds out of the sky, but some inevitably get through — otherwise, Moscow would not be so intent on deploying them. The Ukrainian Air Force spokesman, Yurii Ihnat, recently told Ukrainska Pravda that “Iranian-made drones are a real headache,” adding that “It’s still very difficult to down them. When lots of them have been launched, they all fly along different routes, staying close to the ground, so that it’s difficult to shoot them from a plane.”At Kyiv and elsewhere in Ukraine, the day-to-day psychological stress of living in a country at war is only worsened by the months of reliably unpredictable aerial onslaughts. A Ukrainian choreographer, Olena Shoptenko, told the Ukrainian Patriots newspaper that upon her return to Kyiv after several months abroad, she witnessed an Iranian drone being shot nearly in front of her. “Like the rocket attacks that happened right after my arrival, the drone strike caused anxiety but not fear or panic, which surprised me,” Ms. Shoptenko stated, adding that “It left me in a state of shock and [at first] I couldn’t communicate with anyone.”In late May Russia unleashed 54 kamikaze drones on targets throughout Ukraine in a single night. More than 40 were shot down over Kyiv. Even when air defenses succeed at taking them out, there is anguish for those in the vicinity. A Kyiv resident told the BBC in May that during one such anti-drone event there was “a big flash of white light” inside her apartment followed by the sound of explosions “like thunder” that left her “in shock” as she struggled to understand what was happening. This pattern of anguish plays out nightly across Ukraine. The trauma that Ukrainian soldiers have been experiencing on the frontlines is essentially metastasizing to something more far-reaching, courtesy as much of Tehran as Moscow. Little wonder that Ukraine is taking every measure possible to eliminate the Iranian drone scourge. Last month the Ukrainian parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, approved a bill that once officially passed will sanction Iran for a period of 50 years. It will ban all trade and investments with the Islamic Republic as well as proscribe technology transfers.That is all well and good — and could prove worth noting by President Biden who for unrelated reasons is ready to cut Iran loose from some existing American sanctions — but for now the war is still on. Mr. Ihnat also told the Ukrainian newspaper that Russia deploys the Iranian-made drones mostly at night as a way to get Ukrainian forces to use up their anti-aircraft ordinances.In the meantime, if Ukrainians’ patience with drone disruptions and the havoc they wreak is wearing thin, Tehran is still pumping out plenty of drones. Earlier this month a White House spokesman, John Kirby, said that “We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to build Iranian drones inside Russia.” He added that Washington had information indicating that Iran is providing Russia with the material needed to build a drone production plant that could be fully operational by early 2024.“Russia is offering Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including in missiles, electronics and air defense,” Mr. Kirby elaborated, adding that “We continue to use all the tools at our disposal to uncover and disrupt these activities…and we stand ready to do more.”Right now, however, Tehran and Moscow have the hometown advantage. As the Sun has previously reported, Iran sends weapons shipments to Russia with impunity via the Caspian Sea. This month the Wall Street Journal confirmed that included in those shipments are just the kinds of drones that are terrorizing Ukrainiains, small children and unamused cats included.Even worse, there are growing indications that Iran has hijacked Western technology to make its UAVs more lethal. In April CNN reported that the Iranian drones Russia is using in Ukraine are powered by engines built with stolen German technology. According to Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, Tehran funded at least one British university project that aimed to improve drone engines and boost their speed and range. The newspaper reported that British MPs “have demanded to know how the research was carried out under the nose of the government’s supposedly tough sanctions regime.” It quoted Lord Polak, President of Conservative Friends of Israel, thusly: “It’s clear that the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] controls Iran’s drone programs, and that these weapons are being used by the Russians in Putin’s war on Ukraine.”There can be little doubt that Ukraine and in a sense the West too is waging a two-pronged counteroffensive in Ukraine. As if a grinding battle along a 600-mile long front line in the Donbas weren’t bad enough, a war of attrition in the skies will likely only compound the misery of ordinary Ukrainians caught in the crossfire. In the absence of more concrete steps to tackle the Iranian aerial menace, it will prolong it as well.

If Russia Is Enemy Number One in Ukraine, Iran Has Become Enemy Number Two

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