The UN leadership received letters from Ukraine, France, Germany, the UK, and the US concerning alleged transfers of unmanned aerial vehicles from Iran to the Russian Federation in a manner inconsistent with the UN Security Council resolution.

“In their letters, the five countries also asked that an inspection be conducted. The Permanent Representative of Iran denied that his country had supplied UAVs for use in the conflict in Ukraine; the Russian Federation also expressed its serious concerns regarding the requests of these Member States,” Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said at the UN Security Council meeting on Monday.

As noted, the Secretariat is examining the available information and any findings will be reported to the Council, “as appropriate, in due course.”

In October, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council members with a request from the Ukrainian side to send experts to Ukraine to inspect the use of drones.

In the letter, Kyslytsya noted that Mohajer and Shahed UAVs, transferred from Iran to Russia, fall under the weapons prohibited by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 as they have a flight range equal to or greater than 300km. In addition, Mohajer UAVs are produced by Qods Aviation which is blacklisted by the UN and its assets are subject to freezing by all countries.

At the Security Council meeting on October 26, most of its member states in their speeches backed the UN investigation into the use of Iranian drones by Russia against the civilian population and infrastructure of Ukraine.

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