Iran Clarifies and Other Business.

Iran clarified its statement on drones:

Iran has acknowledged for the first time it handed over military drones to Russia, claiming, however, that the shipments were completed before the Ukraine conflict broke out in late February. Tehran also denied claims that it had provided Moscow with missiles. Iranian state news agency, IRNA, cites Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying “This fuss made by some Western countries, that Iran has provided missiles and drones to Russia to help the war in Ukraine - the missile part is completely wrong.” The diplomat explained that the “drone part is true, and we provided Russia with a small number of drones months before the Ukraine war.”

The key point is the last phrase which describes "small number", which was most likely technical samples for study. As I continuously stress the manufacturing capabilities of Russia and Iran are simply incomparable for Russia to "buy" Iranian drones. The other subject--missiles--is altogether a BS. 

Now to a much more important business:

Находящиеся в зоне проведения Специальной военной операции на Украине отмечают, что все чаще слышат иностранную речь, которая доносится со стороны противника. На некоторых направлениях численность иностранцев, прибывших на «охоту на русских» достигает 70 %. Эксперт «МК», ветеран военной разведки, герой Российской Федерации Рустем Клупов объяснил, почему на поле боя все чаще встречаются военнослужащие, прибывши е из-за рубежа – украинские почти закончились. По словам полковника полиции ЛНР Виталия Киселева, на Луганском направлении в составе ВСУ задействовано порядка 70% наемников. Как правило это наемники из Восточной Европы, а также из Польши, Финляндии, Франции, Италии. Ранее военкор Юрий Котенок сообщал, что на рубеже Сватово-Кременная в радиоперехватах украинский стороны слышны в эфире английская, польская, румынская речь. Накануне из зоны боевых действий сообщалось, что в Харьковской области «дали прикурить» польским «туристам» - в результате боев погибло 9 польских наёмников, один получил увечья. По словам ветерана военной разведки Рустема Клупова, такое засилье наемников свидетельствует о том, что на Украине с резервом стало совсем туго:

Translation: Those in the zone of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine note that they increasingly hear foreign speech that comes from the enemy. At some directions, the number of foreigners who came to "hunt for Russians" reaches 70%. Rustem Klupov, an MK expert, a veteran of military intelligence, a hero of the Russian Federation, explained why military personnel who arrived from abroad are increasingly found on the battlefield - the Ukrainian ones are almost over. According to LPR Police Colonel Vitaly Kiselyov, about 70% of mercenaries are involved at the Lugansk direction in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As a rule, these are mercenaries from Eastern Europe, as well as from Poland, Finland, France, Italy. Earlier, military commander Yuriy Kotenok reported that at the turn of Svatovo-Kremennaya, in the radio intercepts of the Ukrainian side, English, Polish, and Romanian were heard on the air. On the eve of the war zone, it was reported that in the Kharkiv region they “gave a light” to Polish “tourists” - as a result of the fighting, 9 Polish mercenaries died, one was injured. According to military intelligence veteran Rustem Klupov, such a dominance of mercenaries indicates that in Ukraine it has become very tight with the reserve.

The conclusion is not only warranted but irresistible: VSU as a Ukrainian force is largely spent (how about 67 years old being mobilized), they simply lack even basic mobilization reserves and the war since about half-way increasingly is a war against NATO forces much of which pass as "volunteers" or "mercenaries". That also explains a decision on partial mobilization due to obvious dynamics of NATOization of operations and a necessity to have force sufficient for not only disposing of the remnants of VSU but to be able to check any NATO attempts to venture into former 404. 

Meanwhile, land-based version of 3M22 Zircon has been created (in Russian), so feel free to speculate how this thing changes the balance in Europe, especially once they will be deployed to Kaliningrad. Yet another Kilo-class (pr. 636) sub Ufa is getting ready for transfer to Russia's Pacific Fleet this month and it will be the fourth one of this class for Pacific, with fifth and sixth hulls being built as I type this. In related news it was decided to de-Kalibrize modernized Oscar II (pr. 949A) Irkutsk and arm her only with P-800 Onyx and 3M22 Zircon missiles thus preserving her dedicated anti-shipping role, with land attack being a secondary mode, and that means hunting big fat targets (CBGs) all over the world ocean. Classic Sea Denial. Together with already afloat and upcoming Yasen class SSGNs. I thought you need to keep this in mind. This is your primer for Saturday.