It seems Iran initially denied they sent drones to Russia, but later Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said that they sent some, but before the war.
“Some western countries have accused Iran of helping the war in Ukraine by providing drones and missiles to Russia. The part regarding missiles is completely wrong. The part about drones is correct, we did provide a limited number of drones to Russia in the months before the start of the war in Ukraine,” Amirabdollahian told reporters in Tehran.
Did Iran then or later present any evidence to back up their version of events?
Certainly the massed drone attacks were not noticed by the Western press until some months into the war, probably in October. According to one Italian source, Ukraine only downed the first such [Iranian-designed] drone in September, i.e. 6 months after the February invasion. There's also been talk of establishing a factory in Russia, but the Western press only said something about a survey team in Jan 2023. So, does Iran claim that or another licensed factory is or was already operational and responsible for most of the Iranian-design drones seen over Ukraine? Or do they claim Russia just massively stockpiled the drones it received before the war?
