Zelenskyy: Russia transferred updated "Shahed" technologies to Iran after "experiments" in Ukraine

Zelenskyy: Russia transferred updated "Shahed" technologies to Iran after "experiments" in Ukraine

Russia transferred technologies to Iran for modernizing "Shahed" drones, which now pose a threat to Middle Eastern countries.

Ukrainian President  Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about this in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

"We have terrible experience with these drones… Ukraine has become a kind of testing ground for them. You can’t even compare the first versions of ’Shaheds’ that were at the very beginning of the war and today’s ’Shahed,’ – he said.

Zelenskyy recalled that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, after evidence emerged that Iran was supplying drones to Russia, Kyiv urged Tehran not to supply drones.

"They (the Iranians – ed.) said: ’Okay... we are not allies in this. We sold the Russians this batch of ’Shaheds,’ about 1300 units, and that’s it.’ But that wasn’t true, they were lying, of course," – the president noted.

Zelenskyy stated that cooperation between Iran and Russia in the field of drones is mutual.

According to Zelenskyy, at the beginning of the full-scale war, Iran not only supplied drones, but also:

•  trained Russian military personnel to operate them;
•  helped establish UAV production in the RF;
•  transferred relevant technologies and licenses.

Currently, as the president noted, the situation has changed – now Russia is transferring modernized drones and technical solutions to Iran.

"We saw some details of a ’Shahed’ destroyed in one of the Middle Eastern countries… What Ukrainian experts found indicates Russia’s involvement, because we saw Russian parts and we know that the Iranians don’t produce such things," Zelenskyy said.

This means, the president noted, that the Russians helped the Iranians – just as the Iranians helped the Russians at the very beginning of the war against Ukraine.

"The threat that the Middle East is now facing did not arise overnight. Ukraine saw it first, experienced it first, and paid for the lessons learned with the blood of peaceful civilians," – he emphasized.

Zelenskyy stressed that the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war extend far beyond one conflict or region. Since the combat experience Russia gained during the war against Ukraine is being transformed into new technologies, tactics, and knowledge that may later spread beyond the Ukrainian front.

"This is huge knowledge from the battlefield. These are new technologies based on Iranian developments, and all this will have an impact on other regions. I have always talked about Africa, the Middle East, and Europe," – the Ukrainian leader added.

Summarizing the interview, The Jerusalem Post notes that it "is a warning about what the rest of the world is now beginning to face: a drone war that started over Ukrainian cities, then spread beyond them, has become cheaper, smarter, and is now much harder to stop. According to Zelenskyy, Putin and Iran together created this threat."