An official of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party says information about Tehran planning to arm Russia with drones has sent shockwaves to Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian parliament member, Yevheniia Kravchuk, has released a statement that Tehran’s decision would lead to the death of more Ukrainian civilians.
On Monday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that Russia wants to obtain hundreds of drones from Iran, both for surveillance and attack, to use in its war against Ukraine.
“Our information shows that the Iranian government is currently planning to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline,” he said, while adding that Washington’s information further indicates that Iran is currently planning to provide training to Russian forces to use these UAVs with early training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign ministry gave reply to Sullivan’s statement, in which the ministry spokesman Naser Kanani said, “The Islamic Republic’s cooperation with the Russian Federation in some new technologies predates the war in Ukraine and lately there have been no specific new developments.”
He added, while not clearly denying the news about delivering drones, “The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the war in Ukraine is quite clear and has been officially announced several times.”
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is to visit Tehran next week.
Tehran has not officially taken side with Russia on Ukraine and says the conflict should be resolved via the dialogue but many officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi, have implicitly pointed the finger at Ukraine and blamed the country for instigating Russia to attack by seeking to join NATO.
