Ukrainian PM unaware whether Iran transferred missiles to Russia

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was unable to confirm earlier reports about the transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.

Photo: fna.ir by Mehdi Bolourian, CC BY 4.0

On Saturday, September 7, CNN reported that Iran allegedly transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia. Representatives for the Iranian Foreign Ministry subsequently denied those reports. The official representative of the department, Nasser Kanaani, called the information about the transfer of missiles unfounded.

"So far, I have no concrete fact to prove that the Russians have received these missiles and are using them,” the Ukrainian Prime Minister said.

Earlier, Shmyhal said that Kyiv was hoping to see representatives of more than 150 countries at the second "peace summit”. The first such event was held from June 15 to 16 in Switzerland. More than 90 countries of the world took part in the summit, but Russia was not among them.

Details

Iran has an arsenal of short-range liquid-fueled missiles including the Scud-B and Scud-C, and is now able to produce SCUD type missiles on its own, such as the R-17E, a variant of the Russian R-17 Elbrus (Scud-B). The Aerospace Industries Organization, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense, supports the manufacturing process by engaging in SCUD missile restoration. Its short-range missile inventory also includes solid-fueled missiles, such as the Tondar-69 and the Fateh-110.
Also, Iranian artillery rockets include the Samid, the Shahin-2, the Naze'at, and the Zelzal family (Zelzal-1, Zelzal-2, and Zelzal-3).
As of 2009, Iran has an active interest in developing, acquiring, and deploying a broad range of ballistic missiles, as well as developing a space launch capability. In mid-July 2008, Iran launched a number of ballistic missiles during military exercises, reportedly including the medium-range Shahab-3. Iran announced other missile and space launch tests in August and November 2008. In February 2009, Iran announced it launched a satellite into orbit and "officially achieved a presence in space."