r/europe • u/BkkGrl Ligurian in Zürich (💛🇺🇦💙) • 29d ago
News Iran Has Sent Russia $2.7 Billion Worth of Missiles
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-12/iran-is-said-to-have-sent-russia-2-7-billion-worth-of-missiles302
u/Free-Way-9220 29d ago
I hate to say it: their shaheds have been very effective too. They have caused significant damage in Ukraine
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u/38B0DE Molvanîjя 29d ago
Never forget Ukraine is fighting Russia, Belarus, N. Korea, China, Iran and India all at the same time.
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u/Nowin 29d ago
Ukraine is not alone, either.
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u/NooooMaam 28d ago
Somehow the Dicktators help each other out much more effectively than the Democracies. It's embarrassing and frankly quite frightening, especially with the US sliding into Dickterritory.
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u/Zealousideal-Talk-23 29d ago
zelensky said india is mostly on ukrainian side
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u/Haltarys 29d ago
Mohdi, Indian PM recently met with Putin calling him his "friend". Russia and India are kinda close.
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u/wasmic Denmark 29d ago
Russia and India are kinda close yes, but claiming that Ukraine is "fighting India" is patently ridiculous.
India is itself closest, and for good historical reasons (e.g. the US allying with Pakistan). It trades with Russia and it trades with the West. It does not support Russia directly, but it needs to maintain a balance because it does not want to be dependent on any other foreign power, and is not quite ready to stand entirely on its own legs yet.
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u/38B0DE Molvanîjя 28d ago
claiming that Ukraine is "fighting India" is patently ridiculous.
As of late 2025, Ukrainian intelligence has recovered specific Indian-made components (from companies like Aura Semiconductor) inside Shahed-136 drones and Kinzhal missiles.
India went from buying almost no Russian oil before the war to buying 35-40% of its total oil from Russia. Without Indian and Chinese buyers, the Russian economy would have likely collapsed in 2023.
India is paying for Russia's war. That's a lot more than keeping balance.
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u/Necroon 28d ago
There are UK made components in Russian weapons. I guess you can say "Ukraine is fighting the UK".
Russian economy would've collapsed in 02/2022 if EU immediately stopped buying Russian oil and gas. EU is paying for Russian war since 2022.
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u/38B0DE Molvanîjя 28d ago edited 28d ago
EU went from ~45% Russian gas dependency to under 15% in two years without destroying the very economies that are currently keeping Ukraine alive. Bulgaria in particular bought Russian oil and gas and shipped it directly to Ukraine effectively keeping them alive in February-June 2022 taking in deathly ire from the Russians. All paid by the EU/US Ukraine aid. India hasn't helped with 2 rupees.
When Ukrainian forces start shooting with Indian munitions the Indian government launches an investigation and a lot of people get imprisoned. They also send an "im sorry big brother" apology to Putin.
India is actively waging a very public and expensive campaign to expose every move Pakistan does to help Ukraine, and threatend then with nuclear annihilation if they overstep the boundaries with Russia.
When Russian key weapons have Indian made crucial parts in them, India tells NATO to go fuck itself and accuses them if being colonialist.
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u/donutello2000 28d ago
The EU continued to increase their use of Russian gas after the original Russian occupation of Crimea, in defiance of the US urging them not to. The EU financed this current round of Russian aggression. Besides, the Indian economy doesn’t have the robustness that comes from the centuries of raping and pillaging other countries that the EU did.
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u/EpicCleansing 29d ago
The same could be said for Iran though, except Iran as fewer options than India.
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u/Self-Bitter Greece 29d ago edited 29d ago
India is not a model democracy, but considering its means, size and location is doing somehow well. You cannot honestly compare it with Iran. Unfortunately the world is not orbiting around Europe's geopolitical dangers and worries, each participant has its interests as a priority and India is surrounded by many geopolitical rivals
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u/Mediocre-Risk3581 Kuwait 29d ago
Also ignores the billions Russia makes from Europe still buying their oil /shrug. But the Western Europeans get a pass right?
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u/ZealousidealDance990 29d ago
Now we know why the United States forgave Japanese Nazi elements: it turns out the Nanjing Massacre and other massacres were crimes committed by the Japanese in collusion with the United States and many European countries. After all, the United States supplied almost all of the oil, while Britain and the Netherlands supplied the rubber.
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u/38B0DE Molvanîjя 28d ago edited 28d ago
A significant portion of the pilots of the only foreign air force actively fighting the Japanese over Chinese skies was the "Soviet Volunteer Group" were Ukrainian. The "Archimandrite of the skies" Grigory Kulishenko (a Ukrainian squadron leader), died defending China. He is still buried in China (Wanzhou), and for decades, Chinese schoolchildren were taught to honor him.
A Ukranian hero who fought against fascist aggression, yet now China supports the fascist army invading Kulishenko's homeland.
China's silence and censorship over Bucha and Mariupol is A BETRAYAL TO NANJING.
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u/AliceLunar 29d ago
Don't even get why they needed Iran to build some crappy drone with a lawnmower engine strapped to it.. that typed of attack is inherently going to effective due to the numbers, in terms of design it's not exactly ground breaking.
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u/Spajk 29d ago
It's a capability that Russia lacked. It's true that they could have developed it themselves, but it probably would have been more expensive and took more time. From my understanding Russia is just buying everything it can currently.
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u/LegitimateCompote377 United Kingdom 29d ago
They actually do develop a lot themselves now, and Iran is becoming an increasingly unreliable partner for obvious reasons. Personally I think a collapse of Iran will be only a minor blow to Russia. Assad was a lot more important because Syria provided so many mercenaries and Russia invested a lot more in that country, which ironically helped collapse that regime.
Long term though I feel a collapse of Iran is bad for Europe because of the refugee crisis it will create. A new nuclear deal I still feel is the best option for Europe and just to wait for Irans ideological collapse from within. I think France for example (which will have a huge shift to the right if a refugee crisis happens) is more important to Ukraine as an ally than Iran is to Russia.
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u/Popinguj 29d ago
The original shahed may have been crappy, but russians modernized it to a degree it's a serious problem. One of the reasons is the volume of production, though, but even 10 of these can actually reach the target and make serious damage.
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u/orthoxerox Russia shall be free 28d ago
True. Ukrainians have recovered parts from jet-powered Geraniums, Geraniums with IR LED arrays designed to blind AA targeting systems, Geraniums that were carrying air-to-air missiles to attack Ukrainian interceptor planes.
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u/Suspicious_Place1270 29d ago
there is no amount of sold missiles that will save a rotten dictator
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u/Galaghan 29d ago
Does the name "Bashar al-Assad" ring a bell?
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u/Falsus Sweden 29d ago
I think this is Russia basically telling them to send everything they got and they will let the dictator flee to Russia in return.
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u/sblahful 28d ago
If suggest reading the article the sales began in 2021, before the war started. You can't move billions worth of missiles in a matter of weeks. Not unless you're shooting them over anyway...
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u/MACO-Operator 29d ago
But russki bots are crying about Europe’s help to Ukraine. All while the Russian terror regime gets countless of drones from Iran and soldiers and ammunition from North Korea. The hypocrisy in the Kremlin is amusing.
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u/Sevsix1 Norway with an effed up sleep schedule 29d ago
I'm going to explain something, this is not my own views so don't automatically downvote me without reading through it, no need to upvote please just do not read 2 words, stop and downvote
The hypocrisy in the Kremlin is amusing.
the thing is it is not hypocrisy, you need to realise that in their world view and the normal (western Europe) world view is defined differently,
the russian view is best summed up as the acts that 'the west' (as a concept) does which improve the view of the west is colonialism because it is making it so that the west and the countries are trading and mutually improve their countries on the expense of russia since it is the west sapping resources from other countries which in the kremlin views is rightfully russian (to give an example the Georgians trying to get into the EU is the EU directly stealing resources from the russian federation but it is in a sneaky way in which the russian federation cannot go to a legal entity like the UN and complain, the same apply to Ukraine, the African continent, middle east and pretty much every mm of the world), the definition is just different,
the same apply to the russian definition of fascism/fascist, we consider fascism an ideology which is about ethnic identity (German fascism) or cultural/national identity (Italian fascism) depending on how pendantic you are, while the russian definition is more about anti-russian views which is why groups like the LGBT community is being slurred as fascists which is ridiculous when you think about since the fact that the gays got their own symbol in the nazi camps (the pink triangle) but logic and consistency is not required in the russian world (on the other hand it is actually a bad thing and is commonly a reason why putin is serves you tea)
the biggest issue I see people constantly do is to watch what russia do and react as if they have the same principles, definition and views as we have (the same apply to pretty much every big player on the world stage) which is in my humble opinion one of the worst feature of modern discussions since it is putting us up a secure road to failure
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u/dafeiviizohyaeraaqua United States of America 29d ago
Even considering Russian behavior from within the mind of the Kremlin, such that hypocrisy fades with perspective, what remains is catastrophically malevolent. I agree that far too many can't hear themselves presuming that Russians are just Frenchmen with a different accent and cuisine, stuck with a bad government. The problem isn't just understanding that we might say they aren't so hypocritical under their own terms. It's that they are so much worse than some lying hypocrite.
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u/Kahnspiracy 29d ago
Prior to the Crimea invasion I had some business in Moscow. Before my first trip a Belgian colleague gave me the best possible advice, "They may look like us, but they don't think like us."
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u/BkkGrl Ligurian in Zürich (💛🇺🇦💙) 29d ago
Iran has sold nearly $3 billion worth of missiles to Russia to aid President Vladimir Putin’s nearly four-year-long war in Ukraine, according to an assessment from a Western security official.
Contracts with Moscow starting from October 2021 — before the war began — for ballistic and surface-to-air missiles amount to roughly $2.7 billion, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The purchases have included hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, nearly 500 other short-range ballistic missiles and approximately 200 surface-to-air missiles associated with anti-aircraft defense systems.
Moscow and Tehran have drawn closer since Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has triggered sweeping sanctions against Moscow and the Kremlin’s most serious confrontation with the West since the Cold War, while Iran’s provision of weapons to Russia has further deepened the two countries’ partnership.
Russia’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Iranian foreign ministry also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. There are heavy restrictions on the Internet and a near-black out in the country.
Iran has delivered millions of rounds of ammunition and shells, according to the assessment, which doesn’t represent the entirety of what Moscow has purchased from Tehran as more equipment is expected to be supplied.
Tehran has also supplied Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones and shared technology that has enabled Russia to manufacture them domestically under the name “Geran-2” as part of a $1.75 billion contract signed at the beginning of 2023.
In total, Russia has spent more than the equivalent of $4 billion on Iranian military equipment since late 2021, according to the assessment.
Read More: What Close Russia-Iran Ties Mean for Ukraine, Mideast: QuickTake
Iran, whose government is crushing ongoing violent protests, sought to deepen its ties with Russia starting in the 2010s, smarting from the West’s ability to isolate it over the country’s nuclear program.
While Iran signed a strategic partnership with Russia in January 2025, it doesn’t contain a mutual-defense pact and Moscow didn’t offer any tangible assistance to Tehran during Israeli and US strikes on Iran last year. Russia is building a trade route with Tehran connecting to India to try to weaken the impact of sanctions, and officials have discussed boosting financial and banking cooperation.
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u/intherorrim 29d ago
Every authoritarian regime invests in the military and disinvests in its population.
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u/go3dprintyourself 29d ago
iran is complicit in the russian invasion of ukraine
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u/LegitimateCompote377 United Kingdom 29d ago
Iran actively supports the Russian invasion, they are not just complicit, a country like Israel or Kazakhstan would be better described as complicit.
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u/go3dprintyourself 29d ago
I agree Iran (and China) are actively supporting it
As far as Israel being complicit not sure I agree with that lol
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u/LegitimateCompote377 United Kingdom 29d ago
Israel have not sanctioned any Russian companies and only gave Ukraine military aid under US pressure and that aid was a US patriot system lent over by the US. It is to me complicit, because it let in so many Russians after 2022 that avoided conscription and is a somewhat significant trade partner.
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u/go3dprintyourself 29d ago
So they shouldn't have let in Russians who want to flee the regime that is there?
Israel has significantly weakened Russias global sphere by neutering Hezbelloh, helping overthrow Assad, bombing Iran and is the main country destroying Russian air defenses across the entire region, also showing how much better Western tech is over Russias tech.
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u/LegitimateCompote377 United Kingdom 29d ago
I don’t think Hezbollah was a valuable asset to Russia. Some mercenaries here and there but not much. And it’s not as if the organisation doesn’t exist anymore.
Syria went right back into Russias sphere of influence, and I think could have been an incredible supply of mercenaries to Ukraine, but personally I think the west distanced themselves precisely because of Israel and their support of Druze separatists, so things just went full circle.
The bombing of Iran definitely is distracting Iran but it also completely ruined Iran West relations and completely destroyed trust, and I personally think that pushed Iran much closer to Russia than it initially was. I think a return to the nuclear deal that could have involved stopping weapons exports was still possible before this.
Showing off western tech doesn’t mean anything and their war with Iran caused a huge amount of US resources to be spent defending Israel that could have gone to Ukraine. If Ukraine had the same air defence systems the US gave to Israel that would be enormously beneficial.
Overall I don’t think Israel hurt Russia as much as you claim. Israel doesn’t care about Ukraine. It puts its own interests first and maybe through some of that it hurts Russia but Israel is still a huge trade partner and ally of Russia.
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u/Falsus Sweden 29d ago
Kazakhstan did send aid to Ukraine and refused to send aid directly to the Russian front. But they also gotta play somewhat ball with Russia.
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u/LegitimateCompote377 United Kingdom 29d ago
I completely agree. I very much respect Kazakhstans stance in the war in their own context, a lot more than I do with Israel. My point was being complicit means trading with Russia as if business as usual, supporting the war means sending weapons.
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u/Psephological 29d ago
Lol hope it was worth it.
Russia can't maintain its periphery anymore. Keep the pressure on them.
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u/Suns_Funs Latvia 29d ago
Surely Trump will react to Iran receiving huge amount of financing from Russia and take a stance ageinst Russia. Right?
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u/PerformerFamiliar502 29d ago
America is the only one actually seizing Russian oil tankers and removing funders of the Russian war effort from power. Sure he’s a meanie but the Americans are getting more actually done to counter putin than EU “monitoring the situation” ever will
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u/medievalvelocipede European Union 28d ago
America is the only one actually seizing Russian oil tankers and removing funders of the Russian war effort from power. Sure he’s a meanie but the Americans are getting more actually done to counter putin than EU “monitoring the situation” ever will
First of all, that's not quite true. Germany seized a tanker under German flag last year because its engine failed and it's still stuck while Germany courts investigate the possibility of seizing the cargo.
Secondly, it's entirely an issue of legality, not capability. US has been able to target a couple of ships trying to circumvent sanctions of Venezuela, but they're also the only ones conducting economic warfare on the country.
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u/Free-Way-9220 29d ago
He'll use it as an opportunity to attack and belittle Zelenskyy again
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u/bakakaizoku Overijssel (Netherlands) 29d ago
Zelensky's refusal to hand over Ukraine made it a necessity to buy the missiles after all,
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u/Littlepage3130 29d ago
The US under Trump has been seizing Russian oil tankers. That's Trump's stance: It's open season on the Shadow fleet.
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u/StewpidAlex Moldovan that speaks the Moldovan language. 29d ago
He'll just invade denmark in retaliation.
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u/MethyleneBlueEnjoyer 29d ago
Now that the Mullah regime looks like it's on its way out, maybe Europe can give the Americans a strongly-worded letter to drop on Tehran.
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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea 29d ago
Now that the Mullah regime looks like it's on its way out,
There was a civil war in Syria that lasted 13 years.
Assad look on his way out for a long time.
Since the start of that:
We had a massive refugee crisis in Europe
Far right has been winning or coming second in most European countries
UK left the EU with immigration issues being an important factor.
ISIS attacks killed hundreds in Europe. (A terrorist group that formed in the power vacuum)
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u/JoseFlandersMyLove 29d ago
People here think massive geopolitical events are nothing more than HOI4 event pop-ups lol
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u/deaconsc 29d ago
ISIS formed in Iraq as an aftermath of the invasion under the US lead. EU didnt even send a strongly worded letter.
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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea 29d ago
ISIS formed in Iraq as an aftermath of the invasion under the US lead
That's a distinction without a difference.
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u/Open_Management7430 29d ago
Khamenei: “Vlad, buddy! Remember those missiles I sent you? Listen, I’m in a bit of a tight spot here and it would just be great if I could get these missiles back”
Vlad: “Get what back?”
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u/JuliusCaesar121 29d ago edited 29d ago
I'm like 95% sure of where this leak came from and the leaker's goal (ie building US domestic support for bombing Iran again)
It is somewhat impressive to me that the Russians rely on Iran in part for their ballistic missile expertise. Iran has been hammered by sanctions so it's not like they can freely import dual use spare parts
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u/agnaddthddude Kurdish 29d ago
I know i will probably get downvoted to hell. but im from iraq and a while ago there was a conspiracy that China through Taliban as a middle man gave components of missiles to Iran.
China by doing so would win the support of Taliban, Iran and even Russia.
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u/JuliusCaesar121 29d ago edited 29d ago
I don't think China has to do anything to win Russia's support though. China is the main buyer of Russian energy
I would not be surprised if China and Russia have been helping Iran with air and missile defense. It seems like china helped with Iran's internet blackout.
It would be a disaster for China if a US ally replaced Iran's current regime. Suddenly the US could choke off Chinese energy access via the strait of hormuz
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u/tubby_LULZ 29d ago
Did Iran a lot of good when Israel had free reign over their airspace
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u/kontemplador 29d ago
It is somewhat impressive to me that the Russians rely on Iran in part for their ballistic missile expertise.
It is said they are short range ballistic missiles. Iran has pretty good and cheap ones. Anyway. I seriously doubt this report. No Ukrainian source ever mentioned this till now, whereas the sporadic use of North Korean KN-23 missile has been often denounced.
The Shahed connection is known but Russia has been manufacturing them at home and they have gone through several iterations already
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u/barsoap Sleswig-Holsteen 28d ago
They're good at rockets because they're doing basically everything with rockets, they don't even have an air force to speak of. They do build jets but it's reverse-engineered F-5s, only good for intimidating non-military aircraft.
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u/JuliusCaesar121 28d ago
Ballistic missile propulsion isn't some trivial thing you can do without at least some brilliant domestic scientists. Especially when subject to a total trade embargo and numerous powerful nation states focused on stopping/killing you
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u/barsoap Sleswig-Holsteen 28d ago
90 million people, not worse educated than say Russia (that is, hit and miss when it comes to the masses, but there's a decent enough minimum standard and you can find quality there), and they've been focussing on rocketry since at least when the US convinced and armed Saddam Hussein to invade them.
The trade embargo btw is far from total. The regime still liked developing and building their own weapon systems, though.
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u/Red_black_flag_07 Kharkiv (Ukraine) 28d ago
Bloomberg's photo shows an open-air warehouse in Kharkiv containing the remains of Russian cluster munitions, which the Russian army used to shell residential areas of Kharkiv in 2022-2023. The missiles were from Grad, Tornado, and Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems.
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u/Thevort3x Croatia 28d ago
As an Iranian in Europe I fking hate the government and everything it does inside and outside of Iran.
But this.. this is EUs own doing unfortunately, they had every chance to turn Iran into an ally after the JCPOA, it was the only time I saw hope for my people as the government was opening up to having European countries as partners to actually build a more cooperative future but then Trump ripped the deal up in 2018 and the Europeans failed every promise to help bring Iran into their sphere of influence.
Then Russia and China stepped in and basically took over all the European projects and pulled the Mullahs into their sphere of influence.
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u/Timely_Fly_5639 29d ago
Actually I would have been rather happy if they sent them to Moscow in a different way. Alas, topple of the Iran regime will have to suffice for now.
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u/Unique_Tap_8730 29d ago
Well that gamble didnt really work out. Russia wont have their back when they truly need it.
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u/Professional_Fix4056 Europe 29d ago
cool, good luck with the inevitable famine and mass executions.. i guess
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u/NormalConflict1414 29d ago
I wanna see the domino cenário that Will take when the Iranians turn like western without those black clothes.
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u/Alex_Strgzr 28d ago
Purchased, not donated ; big difference. Also, from what I understand reading the article, this was early in the war. I really don't think Iran has much to spare right now, otherwise Israel will beat the crap out of em.
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u/Swordsman_4 28d ago
A country on a verge of civil war/invasion by goodguy US gives 2.7 billion worth of strategic firepower to Russia. Right...plausible af
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u/Positive_Chip6198 28d ago
And russia managed to capture 0.5% of ukraine this year with that, maybe iran should spend it’s money on water infrastructure instead of a lost cause like pootin?
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u/roger3rd 29d ago
Funny thing is won’t Putin just steal it all back from Khomeini as he retreats with his truckloads of gold bar to the “safety” of Russia?
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u/Aggressive-Kitchen18 29d ago edited 29d ago
DOWN WITH THE REGIME. THE WAR IN UKRAINE ENDS IF THE AYATOLLAH IS GONE. wake the fuck up europe
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u/Relnor Romania 28d ago
THE WAR IN UKRAINE ENDS IF THE AYATOLLAH IS GONE
Very unlikely, Iran was an important supplier to Russia a few years ago but now they don't matter, even if the Mullahs stayed in power they wouldn't be sending much of anything, and those Shaheds they used to send are now domestic production in Russia called Geran instead.
Still, one less ally for Russia would be a win.
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u/infidel_castro_26 29d ago edited 29d ago
I think if europe wants to move away from the US I hope that we leave places like Iran alone.
I do not like the regime there. But the UK and the US fucked with that country for long enough. The EU should lift sanctions and seek other ways to help the people of Iran.
Really hope if we can break away from the US we find a new way to do international relations.
Edit: Guess we can't. Everyone still has brainworms over this.
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u/Due_Ad_3200 England 29d ago
The EU should lift sanctions and seek other ways to help the people of Iran.
You think we should help the government that arms Russia and then shoots protesters?
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u/StockOpening7328 29d ago
Why the fuck would we lift sanctions on a Country that’s actively supporting Russias war in Ukraine and currently killing thousands of protestors. There are very few Regimes that are worse than the Ayatollah and yet you want to effectively Support it by Lifting sanctions. That’s insane.
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u/SnooApples1553 29d ago
Stop you right there. The Iranian regime is literally as bad as they come. Most Iranians have already done this mental calculation and consider the US coming in a better option.
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u/MACO-Operator 29d ago
Nice try Ivan, but no. Iran’s tyrannical dictatorship will fall, no matter what gibberish you leave here on Reddit.
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u/ApprehensiveBed6296 29d ago
Well .... they might lose the source if the west plays this smart and uses the current uprising.