Putin has turned to Iranian Shahed-131/136 drones to target Ukraine’s population, including its civilians. Babak Taghvaee unveils more on the secret aircraft.
The Russian Armed Forces used Shahed-136 Kamikaze drones against a Ukrainian military target in Kupyansk, Kharkiv Oblast for the first time on September 13, 2022. Since then, more drone strikes have followed – including some by its smaller version, the Shahed-131 – and have been conducted against both civil and military targets, killing civilians and military personnel.
The Shahed-131 and 136, which are called Geran-1 (Geranium-1) and Geran-2 respectively in Russian, are not the only Iranian drones to have been used in the war; the armed Mohajer-6 and Yasir surveillance drones have also been used by Russia. Meanwhile, negotiations with Iran continue over the purchase of a large batch of Arash-2 suicide drones, which have an even longer range with heavier warheads.
The final version of the Shahed-136 was unveiled during the visit of Ali Khamenei (supreme leader) to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force (IRGCASF) headquarters in the northwest of Tehran on May 22, 2014. It was never ever seen again until the wreckage of one of the drones that had been used …
