Russia Advances in Drone Manufacturing

The Washington Post reported today, citing documents, that Russia is making steady progress towards its goal of producing large quantities of Iranian-made attack drones that can fly over a thousand miles and target Ukrainian cities. According to the documents, Moscow is working on its own version of the Shahed-136 drone, despite delays and sanctions affecting the supply of necessary parts from other countries. The newspaper obtained the documents from a source who stated that he participated in work in the special economic zone of the Republic of Tatarstan but opposes the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Iran acknowledges sending drones to Russia but has previously stated that they were sent before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.