Arms contract shows Iran has sold Russia ammunition for Ukraine war, says security source PHOTO

A purported arms contract seen by Sky News offers the first hard evidence that Iran has sold ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine, an informed security source has claimed.

If authentic, the 16-page document, dated 14 September 2022, appears to be for samples of varying sizes of artillery and tank shells and rockets worth just over $1 million.

It was shared by the source along with five pages of an allegedly linked contract that includes barrels for a T-72 tank and barrels for a Howitzer artillery piece, as well as ammunition shells. That deal was worth about $740,000.

Sky News has not been able to verify the authenticity of the documents independently.

However, the security source alleged: "This is a contract between the Iranians and the Russians regarding munitions… We believe it is 100% authentic."

Russia's embassy and Iran's embassy to the UK respectively did not respond to a request for comment on the claims about an arms deal, nor on the authenticity of the documents.

Sky News showed the documents - which can be viewed in full here - to Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's prime minister, when he visited Britain in May and to the UK's foreign secretary, James Cleverly.

Kyiv and London said they planned to investigate the authenticity of the material and would take action if it was found to be credible.

"We suspected that there's something like that happening," Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, told Sky News in a recent interview.

"As soon as we verify it properly, we will be able to act upon this."

Mr Cleverly, in a separate interview, said: "When information is presented to us, we will look to assess it and to validate it. And of course, we will make decisions based on that."

He said the UK had already imposed sanctions on Tehran after the regime supplied attack drones to Russia, which have terrorised Ukrainian cities.

"Where we have evidence that Iran has provided military support to Russia in Russia's attempted invasion of Ukraine we have taken action and we will, of course, always do likewise," the foreign secretary said.

The informed security source alleged the purported arms contract was evidence of this support extending to ammunition and other military equipment.

"It is our assessment that these were weapons 'samples' before further shipments," the source claimed.