Russia is running out of Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which it is using in the war with Ukraine, according to a tweet by Britain's Ministry of Defense citing intelligence data.
According to the data, Russia has likely launched hundreds of UAVs since September, using drones against tactical military targets and the Ukrainian power grid. Recently, however, Russian commanders have begun launching UAVs to make up for a severe shortage of cruise missiles. Britain's Ministry of Defense noted that this approach has not been successful – most of Russia’s launched UAVs have been shot down.
“No one-way attack UAV strikes have been publicly reported since around 17 November 2022. Russia has likely very nearly exhausted its current stock, but will probably seek resupply. Russia can probably procure UAVs from overseas more rapidly than it can manufacture new cruise missiles domestically.”
After massive Russian missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov gave an estimate of Russia’s remaining missile stocks. According to his report, Russia had used up 87% of the missiles for the Iskander surface-to-air missile system.
According to an infographic released by Ukrainian Defense Ministry on November 22, Russia has 119 remaining Iskander missiles, 347 3M55 Onyx missiles, 6,980 anti-aircraft missiles for the S-300, 229 Kalibr sea-based missiles, 132 Kh-101 air-based missiles, 150 Kh-555s, 120 Kh-22/32s, 356 Kh-35 missiles and 43 Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles.