Russia Scrambling to Obtain Hundreds of Iranian Ballistic Missiles—Report

Russia has turned to Iran for missiles to attack Ukrainian infrastructure, British defense officials have said.

The U.K's Ministry of Defense (MOD) said on Saturday that Russia had probably used up a large number of its own SS-26 Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, which are able to carry a 1,100-pound warhead up to 300 miles.

So, Russia is likely to be offering Iran "an unprecedented level of military and technical support," which is " transforming their defense relationship," the defense officials said.

In its daily assessment, the MOD said that if Russia managed to bring Iranian ballistic missiles into service, "it will likely use them to continue and expand its campaign of strikes against Ukraine's critical national infrastructure."

This chimes with comments from Britain's U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, who said on Friday that Russia was partnering with Iran to get "hundreds of ballistic missiles."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected the claims, telling the Security Council "the military industrial complex in Russia can work perfectly fine and doesn't need anyone's assistance."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry and Iran's foreign ministry, for comment.

Russia's bombardment of Ukrainian cities has left millions freezing throughout the country. Key to this campaign has been the use of Iranian-made Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as "kamikaze drones."

But Russia had also reportedly struck a deal with Iran in September for Tehran to supply other weapons such as the Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles.

With a range of around 200 miles, the Fateh-110 can travel at up to 3,800 mph and hit targets with an accuracy of about 16 to 32 feet, according to Military Today.

Marina Miron, a research fellow from the Defense Studies Department at King's College London (KCL), told Newsweek in November that the deal allows Iran to get their missiles battle-tested in real-world conditions, "and that's very important," given Tehran concerns regarding Iraq and Israel.

British defense officials have repeatedly assessed that Russia's use of missiles and the impact of international sanctions due to Vladimir Putin's invasion mean that its stock of these weapons is depleting quickly.

However, it is still able to launch operationally significant attacks and a report by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) this week found that Russia was producing cruise missiles with imported components.

Remnants of Kh-101 cruise missiles were marked by codes that indicate they were produced in the summer and fall of 2022, CAR said.

Michael Kofman, director of Russia Studies at CNA (Center for Naval Analyses), told the War on the Rocks podcast on Thursday that Moscow may have dwindling cruise-missile supplies but "have had larger stocks and a higher rate on monthly production" than experts have estimated.

"Even though the numbers they are making are still quite anemic relative to what they are using," Kofman said, "nonetheless they probably could sustain these strikes for some period of time.

"The Russian military can keep making missiles. They have mobilized production and gone to double and triple shifts in a lot of plants," he added.