Russia is secretly working on building thousands of drones through a covert partnership with Iran, leaked documents reportedly show.
Engineers are quietly working to construct 6,000 drones by the summer of 2025 via a billion-dollar weapons deal between Moscow and Tehran.
The work is being carried out at a facility in Tatarstan, about 500 miles from the Russian capital.
Leaked documents obtained by the Washington Post show that Russian drone production is heavily reliant on electronic parts from other countries and that Russian engineers have been trying to improve on the Iranian Shahed-136 attack drone, which is able to travel over 1,000 miles.
Among the attempted improvements is making the drones able to carry out a swarm attack, in which they autonomously coordinate to strike a common target.
The documents also show that the engineers have been using coded language when communicating: using “boats” for drones, “bumpers” for explosives, and either “Ireland” or “Belarus” for Iran, which is providing technical help on the project.
A retired Russia Federal Security Service official heads the program and the work is being carried out by skilled engineers whose passports were seized, preventing them from leaving the country, the documents also show.
The documents were leaked by a whisteblower who was not named in the report, in hope bringing attention to the project would lead to sanctions which could hinder production and end the war sooner.
“This was the only thing I could do to at least stop and maybe create some obstacles to the implementation of this project,” the whistleblower said.
“It has gone too far.”
The Kremlin previously dismissed reports that it is receiving help from Iran, instead claiming that Russia has been using its own research and development to manufacture the unmanned machines used to deliver bombs to Ukranian territory.
However, the U.S. and other Western officials have said that Russia began secretly receiving shipments of Iranian drones, which include Shaheds, last summer.