Russia admits almost all of its imported drones come from China

He said this on October 16 at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes.

"We are allocating additional money for drones. More than 60 billion roubles have been accounted for, money for a new national project to develop our own drone base. The goal is for 41% of all drones to be labelled 'Made in Russia' by 2025," Siluanov said.

"Today, drones are mostly from the People's Republic of China. We are grateful to our partners. But we need to develop our own resource base, and we need to allocate money," the minister added.

This is the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion that Russia has openly admitted that it imports drones from China. Earlier, it was known that Russia had relevant agreements with Iran.

• On June 5, the media reported on a contract for Russia to purchase artillery and tank shells, as well as missiles of various sizes, from Iran. And the WSJ wrote that Western experts who studied the Iranian ‘kamikaze’ drone shot down in Ukraine revealed a component that was made in China in early 2023. This could mean that Beijing is a supplier of drones.