Iran sent drones ‘before the war’
KYIV: Iran has admitted for the first time that it sent drones to Russia but insisted they were supplied to its ally before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian-made drones in recent weeks to carry out attacks.
Tehran has repeatedly denied the claims but foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted on the weekend saying that drones had been sent to Russia before the invasion in late February.
“We supplied Russia with a limited number of drones months before the war in Ukraine,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
But he again denied Iran had supplied missiles to Russia, calling the accusations “completely false”.
For weeks, Russian forces have rained missiles and explosive drones onto Ukraine’s infrastructure as a major Ukrainian ground offensive – propelled by Western arms deliveries – has pushed Russian troops back in swathes of the country.
Kyiv claims around 400 Iranian drones have already been used against the civilian population and that Moscow has ordered around 2000. President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Iranian officials of lying about its drone deliveries to Moscow.
“They decided to admit that they did supply drones for Russian terror. But even in this confession they lie,” he said.
“We shoot down at least 10 Iranian drones every day, and the Iranian regime claims that it allegedly gave little and even before the start of a full-scale invasion.” Earlier, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman had warned Iran that “the consequences of complicity” with Moscow would be “greater than the benefit from Russia’s support.”
Britain and the European Union have imposed sanctions on three Iranian generals and an arms firm accused of supplying Russia with drones.
Russian strikes over the past month have destroyed around a third of Ukraine’s power stations.