Iranian general served with suspicion for supplying Russia with Shahed engines and helping it launch drone production

Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have served a notice of suspicion on Brigadier General Abdollah Mehrabi, the head of the Aerospace Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who arranged for components to be supplied to Russia for the mass production of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.

Source: Security Service of Ukraine (SSU); Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko; Ukrainian National Police

Details: The case concerns the supply to Russia's Defence Ministry of wholesale batches of Iranian-made MD 550 engines, which are installed on attack drones.

The implementation of the deal was overseen by Brigadier General Abdollah Mehrabi, head of the Self-Sufficiency and Research Jihad Organisation of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, and with involvement from agencies under his control.

On 29 December 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defence signed a contract as part of the state defence order with the management of the Alabuga Special Economic Zone to organise the mass production of Shahed-136 combat drones under the modified name Geran-2. The Iranian interests in this scheme were represented by Mehrabi, who co-owns Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (Mado), a company that specialises in the production of components for Shahed-136 drones, including MD-550 engines.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said the military-technical alliance between Russia and its accomplice involved the use of Iranian technologies in Russia's defence industry, large-scale supplies of equipment and components, and substantial funding, including payments in gold.

In January 2023, Mehrabi, together with other Iranian representatives, visited the city of Yelabuga in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, where a new production site had been established. The mass production of attack drones was set up in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone.

The suspect is also involved in training Russian engineers and military personnel, including organising training for crews in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, namely the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Kherson Oblast.

Kravchenko reported that as a result of this cooperation, Russia received more than 13,000 Geran-2 UAVs (the Russian name for Iranian Shahed-136 drones) in 2023-2024, as well as over US$324 million worth of components and equipment.

These UAVs were later supplied to the Russian army and used to carry out strikes on Ukrainian territory.

Quote from Kravchenko: "Thus, Abdollah Mehrabi, acting in collusion with the top military and political leadership of the Russian Federation, deliberately provided means and tools for waging the war of aggression against Ukraine. He has been served with a notice of suspicion for complicity in the waging of a war of aggression committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons (Articles 27.5, 28.2 and 437.2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)."

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