Iran has reportedly sold $4 billion worth of weapons – including $2.7 billion worth of missiles – to Moscow since the end of 2021, months before the latter’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The weapons include hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, nearly 500 of other types, and approximately 200 air defense missiles, an unnamed Western security official told Bloomberg.
The official said the missile contract was concluded in October 2021 – months before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Rumors of Iranian Fath-360 missile transfers to Russia surfaced in August 2024, with the system described as an Iranian analogue of the US-made HIMARS. Satellite imagery suggests that around 220 Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles arrived in Russia on Sept. 4 of the same year.
The missile’s range would allow Moscow to strike Ukraine’s eastern regional capitals such as Kharkiv and Sumy.
In another contract worth $1.75 billion, signed in early 2023, Tehran also supplied Moscow with Shahed-136 kamikaze drones and helped set up production of its domestic analogues, known as the Geran-2.
Iran repeatedly denied claims of drone supplies to Russia after the invasion began, despite overwhelming evidence that suggests otherwise. According to a Ukrainian government report, the drones were delivered from Iran to Russia through the Caspian Sea.
In November 2025, Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) said Iran was also field-testing its Shahed-107 drone in Ukraine by having Russia deploy it to probe Western air-defense systems.
The unnamed official also told Bloomberg that Tehran supplied Moscow with millions of ammunition and artillery shells.
The comments came as the US threatened military actions against Iran over Tehran’s violent crackdown on protestors, though Bloomberg did not specify the nationality of the unnamed official quoted in its report.
Moscow’s shaky commitments to Tehran
Iran has been a key enabler of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, though it remains unclear to what extent that support has been reciprocated.
As noted by The Moscow Times, Western sanctions after Russia’s 2022 invasion have pushed Tehran and Moscow closer, though Tehran has sought to expand ties with Moscow since the 2010s.
However, despite a “comprehensive strategic partnership” signed between the two in January 2025, the document had omitted a mutual defense clause seen in a similar deal signed by Moscow and Pyongyang in June 2024.
Moscow also failed to come to Iran’s assistance during the latter’s war with Israel in June 2025, a fact mocked by US Republican Senator John N. Kennedy at the time.
“All of a sudden, even Google can’t find Russia. I thought Iran and Russia were peeps. I thought they were best friends,” Kennedy said at the time. “They’re best buds. ...I know Iran has a relationship with China, but that’s more transactional.”
Kennedy said Moscow had turned down Iran’s appeal for help when a top Iranian diplomat visited Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“Do you know what President Putin said he would provide? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Some kind of friend,” Kennedy said.