We have some brand
new CNN reporting for you.
Sources telling CNN that Russia
has been sending
us weapons that are captured in Ukraine
to Iran.
CNN's Natasha Bertrand
has this reporting Natasha.
So obviously the U.S.
has been
sending a lot of weaponry
to Ukraine since Russia invaded.
What exactly
are the Russian forces doing here?
Yeah, Kaitlin.
So what we're told
by four different sources
is that the Russians
have been capturing us made U.S.
provided equipment on the battlefield
in certain instances.
And sending that equipment to Iran.
Now, these are smaller items.
These are things like shoulder
fired missiles, like Javelin
anti-tank missiles
and Stinger anti-aircraft systems
and also the NATO's equivalent. Right.
Because NATO's also providing
some of the similar equipment.
So they're they're taking this equipment
that sometimes the Ukrainians
are forced to leave
behind on the battlefield.
Whether because they are overrun
or they simply need to withdraw quickly.
And they are sending that
that equipment
in many instances to Iran, likely
so that Iran can then reverse engineer
that equipment
so that they can potentially reproduce it
and make their own kind of version.
Now, the Russians are doing this
because they want Iran to continue
to help them in their war in Ukraine.
Right.
This is part of the growing
defense partnership
that we have seen
between Iran and Russia.
And it really has intensified
over the last year with Iran providing
hundreds of drones
to Russia, other equipment,
and Russia now looking to kind of pay
that back to Iran by providing them
with these Western types of equipment
so that the Iranians
can basically take them apart
and try to reverse engineer them.
And have they done this before,
reverse engineer Western weapons?
Yes.
The Iranians
are actually very adept at this.
One of their top
weapons in their inventory
is an anti entity guided missile
that they actually reproduced from
an American anti-tank
missile in the 1970s
that it really is
a key part of their inventory now.
They also were able to reproduce
an American made drone
that they intercepted in 2011,
making their own version of that
which then crossed into Israeli airspace
before being shot down in 2018.
So they have proven very capable
of doing this
and is one
expert told me
that could prove very dangerous to
of course Israel and other
allies in the region
who are
of course very concerned about the threat
that Iran already poses. Caitlin.
Yeah absolutely
and we're seeing that partnership
with Iran and Russia getting even closer.
Natasha Bertrand, great reporting.
Thank you.
New this morning, nearly half a million
people are without power
in Ukraine's second largest city.
That's Kharkiv after Moscow launched.
95 missiles
over the past
24 hours, killing
at least six people in the lead.
Ukrainian officials say
Russia has been targeting
the energy grid like this power
plant in Kiev.
Let's bring in now
Mark Esper,
the former defense secretary
under President Donald Trump.
Thank you for joining us, sir.
The Ukrainian energy minister
says that Russia used a deal
using a new tactic in this
very large scale
offensive against Ukraine's Ukrainians.
What does this tell you
about the strategy right now?
And they're doing all of these cities.
They seem to be bombarding them.
The strategy seems to be ramping up.
Well, the
sense is what was
the attack in the last 24?
48 hours was retribution
for an attack
allegedly committed
by the Ukrainians within Russia.
And so the the Kremlin's response
was to hit them
hard with 95 plus missiles
to use a range of ballistic missiles.
Hypersonic cruise drones.
And what you find out
when you dig a little bit deeper
is that they're actually
using air defense missiles
and anti-ship missiles
to attack Ukraine's infrastructure.
And it tells you that their stocks
seem to be fairly depleted.
Now, kudos to the Ukrainians.
It looks like their energy
infrastructure is back on line today.
And it just shows you
that it shows you the resilience
of the Ukrainian people
when it comes
to these unwarranted attacks
on their infrastructure.
But when it comes
to these hypersonic missiles
that they're using,
you know, they used I think it's six.
So far
in this latest attack,
they have barely used anything like that
in the entire last year.
So what does it say to you
that they're ramping up
hypersonic missiles?
But also the concern is
we were talking to John Kerry will say
Ukraine has nothing
that can knock those out of the sky.
Right. Look, they're very hard to defeat.
They travel at five times
the speed of sound, up to ten times
the speed of sound.
Very difficult to knock out of the air.
It's a challenge
that we in the United States
military we're looking at as well,
because we know that China
is also developing hypersonic weapons.
So it's going to remain a challenge.
The fact that they haven't used
more of them is surprising.
But this,
again, calls
for the need to Ukraine
to get the air defenses it needs.
I don't think they still have Patriot air
defense systems,
not that patriot
could defeat hypersonics, but still,
there's much more
we need to give
and provide the Ukrainians
in order to beat back
the Russian assault.
Yeah,
Would that be
problematic, though,
for America, for NATO, by giving them
that, won't they?
I guess.
Well, Putin will see it
as any act of aggression,
anything that Naito does
is an act of aggression anyway.
Well, we've already committed
to providing patriot.
We actually have
Ukrainian soldiers
reportedly in Oklahoma
training on the system.
But it takes time to train.
It takes time to deliver the systems.
Another European allies
providing systems as well.
But again,
these are things that the Ukrainians
were asking for months and months ago.
And it's a shame that they
don't have them yet.
Same goes for tanks and F-16s.
But on the F-16,
I'm fascinated by this
because we are seeing a real split
between the US and Ukraine on this,
because President Biden is saying
they've done the assessment.
They don't think Ukraine needs them.
Zelensky is telling, Wolf,
they could be make or break
to the outcome of the war
that they at least
want to have the Ukrainian pilots
training on them.
Is it a mistake for the US
not to do it, in your view?
Well, sure it is.
You know,
President Biden said a few weeks ago,
no, no, no, no, no.
We now understand that Ukrainian pilots
are being evaluated
here in the United States to do so.
There are also reports
coming out of the Munich
Security Conference
that the United States
top general in Europe,
Chris Cavalli,
the supreme allied commander,
told lawmakers
that, yes, F-16s would make a difference
for the Ukrainians.
And it's obvious they need a platform
to conduct
air strikes
against Russian elements in Ukraine.
It would very much help
with our Ukrainian counter-offensive
that hopefully will be launched
sometime in the coming months.
But sure,
they need advanced fighter
aircraft Secretary,
this is something that's very disturbing
that we're here.
We're hearing
coming out of the war,
we have new reporting here at CNN
that Russia has been sending
us weapons captured in Ukraine to Iran.
How dangerous could that be?
Well, look,
first of all, absolutely not
surprised by this.
I suspect, frankly, that the Chinese
have some as well
because this is what happens in warfare.
Weapons get left on the battlefield.
A unit gets overrun, they scoop them up.
And this becomes
important intelligence
collection materials for our adversaries.
Now, look, the good news is
these things are hard to re-engineer.
It's not like you're
reengineering a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich.
And we also build design
into our systems, anti tampering
and other type of mechanisms to defeat
anybody trying to take them apart
and re-engineer them.
But that said, we you know,
we should be
trying to find out what the Iranians have
and how long it might take to take them
to get gains, some information
about how we design our own systems
and how they might go
about countering them.