Report: Iran delivers close-range ballistic missiles to Russia as Ukraine’s Zelensky calls for air defense support

Iran has delivered close-range ballistic missiles to Russia, according to American and European officials quoted in a US report, despite Western warnings not to supply the weapons to Moscow.

Russia is believed to have signed a contract in December in Tehran with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another ballistic missile system built by Iran’s government-owned Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) called the Ababil.

Western officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal say the shipment involves some 200 short-range missiles, with a range of around 800 kilometers (500 miles).

The report comes as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky makes a fresh appeal for more weapons to counter the threat from advancing Russian forces in the east of the country and Moscow’s devastating missile strikes.

He presses his nation’s case to allies meeting at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where Washington unveils a new $250 million in military aid for Ukraine, and later in the day at an international forum on the Italian Lakes.

“We need more weapons to drive Russian forces off our land,” says Zelensky, who also met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today and will meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tomorrow.

“The world has enough air-defense systems to ensure that Russian terror does not have results, and I urge you to be more active in this war with us for the air defense,” Zelensky says.