Iran not yet sending missiles to Russia due to threat of severe sanctions - Budanov

“Iran is not hurrying to do this, for understandable reasons, because as soon as Russia fires the first missiles the sanctions pressure will grow,” said Budanov.

He noted said that, under the contract concluded this summer, Russia purchased from Iran 1,700 Shahed kamikaze drones, which are being delivered to the aggressor state in separate batches.

To date, according to intelligence, the Russians have used about 540 drones to strike Ukraine's energy infrastructure, most of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces.

At the same time, according to Budanov, the main advantage of Iranian kamikaze drones is their low production cost, which is about $7,000 per UAV. Although, he added, it is currently "unclear how much Iran actually charged Russia for the weapons."

As reported by Ukrinform, the head of Israeli intelligence (Mossad), David Barnea, said that Iran was preparing to expand supplies to Russia of advanced types of weapons.