UK: Iran has become one of Russia’s main military backers

The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, collects the wreckage of a missile attack by Russia (December 3, 2022)

Britain says Iran has become one of Russia’s main military backers since its invasion of Ukraine.

The UK Ministry of Defence said this in an intelligence update posted on Twitter on Saturday (December 10).

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Iran’s support for Russia could increase because “Russia is trying to get more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles.” In return, Russia is very likely to provide Iran with an unprecedented level of military and technical support, which is changing their relationship.

“Russia is very likely to have depleted a large part of its stockpile of Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, which carry 500 kilograms of warheads and have a range of up to 500 kilometers,” the

British Ministry of Defense said, “If Russia can put a large number of Iranian-made ballistic missiles into service, it may use them to continue its strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure and expand its strike offensive.”

John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Washington was deeply concerned about the “deepening and rapidly developing defense partnership” between Iran and Russia and would use tools to unravel it.

He said the U.S. government would also ask partners to discuss and resolve Russia’s partnership with Iran.

The Financial Times also selected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the person of the year.

Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf said Saturday that “Zelensky has become a representative of the courage and tenacity of these people.” That’s why our editorial board chose him as our Person of the Year.

(Part of this article is based on a Reuters report.)