The Lie That Flies: Russia, Ukraine and the Iranian Drone

More than three years on and Iran is still protesting its “neutrality” in the Russia-Ukraine war by denying its crucial military contribution to Putin’s war machine. This past Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Poland for co-hosting an exhibit in London at the House of Commons, where a recovered Iranian Shahed-136 drone was put on display by UANI. Araghchi slammed the exhibit as a “provocation” and an “insult” to Iran’s sovereignty.

It is a strange rebuke indeed given that this particular Shahed drone—“good, fast, and deadly,” according to President Trump, and the 21st century equivalent of the Nazi “buzz-bomb” or “doodlebug”—was found embedded in Ukrainian soil. 

To recap: as early as August 2022, the U.S. State Department reported that Iran had hosted training sessions for Russian drone operators as part of a weapons transfer deal. A month later, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported that Iran had provided Russia with three kinds of UAVs: Shahed 131 (renamed by Russia as Geran‑1); Shahed 136 (renamed Geran‑2); and Mohajer 6. After months of inaction, the EU sanctioned two Iranian dronemakers in November after Ukrainian civilians were killed. 

By 2023, Russia’s own domestic drone factory in Alabuga, Tatarstan—built with Iranian designs, training, and support—was producing thousands of Shahed airframes. In the same year, 600 disassembled kits were transferred for reassembly inside Russia. 

As the victim of these devastating weapons, Ukraine itself has recovered and documented thousands of Iranian-designed drones used in Russian airstrikes targeting civilians and infrastructure. By late 2024, the Foreign Ministry reported that Russian forces had launched over 8,000 drones of the Shahed-136 variant alone. Iran has supplied UAV hardware and knowhow throughout the duration of the war.

The House of Commons exhibition and its fallout thus demonstrated not only the drone but Iran’s determination to maintain this diplomatic fiction, despite an irrefutable body of material, forensic, and intelligence evidence. The lie tries to conceal the brutal reality that Iranian-designed Shahed drones have become one of Russia’s most lethal weapons in its war on Ukraine.

Still more contemptible – after initially attempting intimidation – Iran is now feigning amity and goodwill to eastern European nations who feel directly threatened by Russia. Posting in Polish to Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who spoke at the UANI event, Araghchi today invoked Iran’s status as a WWII safe-haven for Polish refugees (a true fact but occurring several decades before the current Islamist regime took power and occupied Iran). 

So why the diplomatic farce? Tehran will never admit the truth because it would mean acknowledging its active military role in the largest land war in Europe since WWII—on the side of the aggressor. It would confirm several things: Iran’s complicity in the deaths of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians; its patent support for an aggressively revanchist Moscow; its defiance of EU partners that it has traditionally needed to balance U.S. hawkishness and for trade; its violation of UN arms embargoes; its willingness to destabilize through arms transfers not just in the Middle East region but also on the European continent, where laying the blame on Israel for all and sundry is not a viable option.

Iran seeks sanctions relief, especially in the face of the recent reimposition of UN sanctions. However, it cannot call for respite, investment, or normalization while mass-producing weapons for a war that has displaced millions and shocked the conscience of Europe.

And it cannot expect to be taken seriously while it scolds Poland and UANI for displaying an Iranian-made weapon that Iran claims it had nothing to do with—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Iran has franchised its drone war, giving Russia the hardware and then the means of production: the blueprints, the engines, the training, and the factory. Iran has become an indispensable enabler of Putin and shares great responsibility for prolonging this war. Meanwhile, the Shahed drone has become a dreadful symbol of falsehood and collective authoritarianism between two regimes with a complete disregard for the truth and for human life. No amount of diplomatic denial can fly above that reality.