The West’s confirmation of Iranian missile supplies to Russia backs up similar reports earlier this year from Iranian officials.

Up to now, Iran’s main arms export to Russia had been thousands of Shahed drones which the Kremlin then fired at cities in Ukraine. In return for weapons, Iran receives oil, space technology support and Russian fighter jets.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, reported that it was unclear which type of missiles Iran had sent to Russia, but said that the Kremlin intended to fire them at “civilian infrastructure over the coming fall and winter to further destabilise Ukrainian society”.

Kursk invasion ‘has backfired’

On the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Russian forces continue to press on towards the strategically important town of Pokrovsk.

Russian military bloggers said that Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region in August has backfired because it failed to draw Russian forces away from Donbas and instead weakened its own frontlines.

“There are only three miles left to the city,” said the Two Majors Russian military blog. “The Russian Army is drawing up the southern flank and twisting the front from the north towards Kurakhovo, forming a pocket.”