Russia is sending some US weapons captured in Ukraine to Iran

Russia has been capturing some of the US and NATO-provided weapons and equipment left on the battlefield in Ukraine and sending them to Iran, where the US believes Tehran will try to reverse-engineer the systems, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN. #CNN #NewsShow more

We have some brand new CNN reporting for you. Sources telling CNN that Russia has been sending us weapons that are captured in Ukraine to Iran. CNN's Natasha Bertrand has this reporting Natasha. So obviously the U.S. has been sending a lot of weaponry to Ukraine since Russia invaded. What exactly are the Russian forces doing here? Yeah, Kaitlin.
00:22
So what we're told by four different sources is that the Russians have been capturing us made U.S. provided equipment on the battlefield in certain instances. And sending that equipment to Iran. Now, these are smaller items. These are things like shoulder fired missiles, like Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft systems and also the NATO's equivalent. Right.
00:42
Because NATO's also providing some of the similar equipment. So they're they're taking this equipment that sometimes the Ukrainians are forced to leave behind on the battlefield. Whether because they are overrun or they simply need to withdraw quickly. And they are sending that that equipment in many instances to Iran, likely so that Iran can then reverse engineer that equipment so that they can potentially reproduce it and make their own kind of version.
01:05
Now, the Russians are doing this because they want Iran to continue to help them in their war in Ukraine. Right. This is part of the growing defense partnership that we have seen between Iran and Russia. And it really has intensified over the last year with Iran providing hundreds of drones to Russia, other equipment, and Russia now looking to kind of pay that back to Iran by providing them with these Western types of equipment so that the Iranians can basically take them apart and try to reverse engineer them.
01:32
And have they done this before, reverse engineer Western weapons? Yes. The Iranians are actually very adept at this. One of their top weapons in their inventory is an anti entity guided missile that they actually reproduced from an American anti-tank missile in the 1970s that it really is a key part of their inventory now.
01:54
They also were able to reproduce an American made drone that they intercepted in 2011, making their own version of that which then crossed into Israeli airspace before being shot down in 2018. So they have proven very capable of doing this and is one expert told me that could prove very dangerous to of course Israel and other allies in the region who are of course very concerned about the threat that Iran already poses. Caitlin.
02:20
Yeah absolutely and we're seeing that partnership with Iran and Russia getting even closer. Natasha Bertrand, great reporting. Thank you. New this morning, nearly half a million people are without power in Ukraine's second largest city. That's Kharkiv after Moscow launched. 95 missiles over the past 24 hours, killing at least six people in the lead.
02:39
Ukrainian officials say Russia has been targeting the energy grid like this power plant in Kiev. Let's bring in now Mark Esper, the former defense secretary under President Donald Trump. Thank you for joining us, sir. The Ukrainian energy minister says that Russia used a deal using a new tactic in this very large scale offensive against Ukraine's Ukrainians.
03:02
What does this tell you about the strategy right now? And they're doing all of these cities. They seem to be bombarding them. The strategy seems to be ramping up. Well, the sense is what was the attack in the last 24? 48 hours was retribution for an attack allegedly committed by the Ukrainians within Russia.
03:19
And so the the Kremlin's response was to hit them hard with 95 plus missiles to use a range of ballistic missiles. Hypersonic cruise drones. And what you find out when you dig a little bit deeper is that they're actually using air defense missiles and anti-ship missiles to attack Ukraine's infrastructure.
03:36
And it tells you that their stocks seem to be fairly depleted. Now, kudos to the Ukrainians. It looks like their energy infrastructure is back on line today. And it just shows you that it shows you the resilience of the Ukrainian people when it comes to these unwarranted attacks on their infrastructure. But when it comes to these hypersonic missiles that they're using, you know, they used I think it's six.
03:55
So far in this latest attack, they have barely used anything like that in the entire last year. So what does it say to you that they're ramping up hypersonic missiles? But also the concern is we were talking to John Kerry will say Ukraine has nothing that can knock those out of the sky. Right. Look, they're very hard to defeat.
04:11
They travel at five times the speed of sound, up to ten times the speed of sound. Very difficult to knock out of the air. It's a challenge that we in the United States military we're looking at as well, because we know that China is also developing hypersonic weapons. So it's going to remain a challenge.
04:27
The fact that they haven't used more of them is surprising. But this, again, calls for the need to Ukraine to get the air defenses it needs. I don't think they still have Patriot air defense systems, not that patriot could defeat hypersonics, but still, there's much more we need to give and provide the Ukrainians in order to beat back the Russian assault.
04:44
Yeah, Would that be problematic, though, for America, for NATO, by giving them that, won't they? I guess. Well, Putin will see it as any act of aggression, anything that Naito does is an act of aggression anyway. Well, we've already committed to providing patriot. We actually have Ukrainian soldiers reportedly in Oklahoma training on the system.
05:04
But it takes time to train. It takes time to deliver the systems. Another European allies providing systems as well. But again, these are things that the Ukrainians were asking for months and months ago. And it's a shame that they don't have them yet. Same goes for tanks and F-16s. But on the F-16, I'm fascinated by this because we are seeing a real split between the US and Ukraine on this, because President Biden is saying they've done the assessment.
05:26
They don't think Ukraine needs them. Zelensky is telling, Wolf, they could be make or break to the outcome of the war that they at least want to have the Ukrainian pilots training on them. Is it a mistake for the US not to do it, in your view? Well, sure it is. You know, President Biden said a few weeks ago, no, no, no, no, no.
05:42
We now understand that Ukrainian pilots are being evaluated here in the United States to do so. There are also reports coming out of the Munich Security Conference that the United States top general in Europe, Chris Cavalli, the supreme allied commander, told lawmakers that, yes, F-16s would make a difference for the Ukrainians.
05:59
And it's obvious they need a platform to conduct air strikes against Russian elements in Ukraine. It would very much help with our Ukrainian counter-offensive that hopefully will be launched sometime in the coming months. But sure, they need advanced fighter aircraft Secretary, this is something that's very disturbing that we're here.
06:16
We're hearing coming out of the war, we have new reporting here at CNN that Russia has been sending us weapons captured in Ukraine to Iran. How dangerous could that be? Well, look, first of all, absolutely not surprised by this. I suspect, frankly, that the Chinese have some as well because this is what happens in warfare.
06:36
Weapons get left on the battlefield. A unit gets overrun, they scoop them up. And this becomes important intelligence collection materials for our adversaries. Now, look, the good news is these things are hard to re-engineer. It's not like you're reengineering a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And we also build design into our systems, anti tampering and other type of mechanisms to defeat anybody trying to take them apart and re-engineer them.
07:00
But that said, we you know, we should be trying to find out what the Iranians have and how long it might take to take them to get gains, some information about how we design our own systems and how they might go about countering them.