The Russian military issues website 鈥淭op War,鈥 citing the Tasnim News Agency reported that Iran鈥檚 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intercepted and arrested three Ukrainian nationals who were planning an attack on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturing plant in Isfahan, Iran.
The plant was named as the Shahed Aviation Industry facility controlled by the IRGC Aerospace Force (IRGC-ASF) and the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Corporation (HESA). HESA designs and manufactures a range of drones including the Shahed 136, its Russian variant the Geran-2, the jet-powered Shahed-238 and the Arash series of long-range UAVs. The factory is situated in the Badr Air Base area near the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
The IRGC statement said the three had been working together with Israel鈥檚 Mossad intelligence agency. It claims that the Ukrainians were intelligence officers from Kyiv鈥檚 main intelligence directorate (HUR). They were allegedly in possession of communications equipment, detailed diagrams of Isfahan facility and explosives.
According to the IRGC spokesman quoted by Tasnim June 22: 鈥淭hey [the Ukrainians] were planning to carry out a terrorist attack with explosives targeting our strategic drone production capabilities.鈥
The report claimed the group had been under surveillance by Iran鈥檚 VAJA Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) agency for several weeks before they were captured in an unidentified 鈥渟afe house鈥 somewhere south of Tehran.
Tasnim also said that the three men appeared before the Iranian Supreme Court and sentenced to death by hanging, with the execution expected to be carried out within two weeks. Details regarding the dates of the arrest and sentencing were not specified and no official date for the executions has been announced.
It has been suggested that the operation was linked to the recent air attacks by Israel. The milblogger Clash Report said that the Israeli air force had destroyed the factory as part of its aerial campaign against Iran on June 15, along with several other defense related facilities including Iran鈥檚 main radar systems manufacturer Shiraz Electronics Industries.