The European Commission assured this Wednesday that it has collected “sufficient evidence” that Iran provided Russia with the suicide drones with which it is bombing Ukrainewhich is why the countries of the European Union are “quickly” finalizing new sanctions against Tehran.
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“Now that we have collected our sufficient evidence, the Council is working on a clear, rapid and firm response,” said the Community Executive’s spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, Nabila Massrali, at the institution’s daily press conference.
Massrali confirmed that Brussels has collected enough evidence two days after the EU foreign ministers pledged to sanction Iran if they were able to prove that Tehran had directly provided Russia with the drones it is using in Ukraine.
The high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, refused on Monday to affirm that the Iranian Government had sold the weapons to Moscow, given that his Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, denied it last Friday during a conversation telephone.
In a message on her official Twitter account on Monday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der LeyenYes, he stated, however, that “Iran’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine will have a clear response from the EU.”
According to community sources consulted by Ephthe collection of evidence was a matter of days, so the Twenty-seven are preparing the sanctions that, according to other diplomatic sources, could also be approved in a matter of days.
On the other hand, the foreign ministers agreed sanctions against 11 Iranian citizensincluding the head of the Morale Police, Mohammad Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi, and four companies in that country in response to the repression against demonstrators who are protesting the death of Mahsa Amini.
Ukraine has shot down 223 Iranian suicide drones
The Armed Forces of Ukraine assured this Wednesday that they have shot down a total of 223 suicide drones of the type “Shahed-136”of alleged Iranian manufacture, in the last 36 days.
The data was made public by the Ukrainian army itself in a statement posted on its Telegram account, in which they indicate that the first drone of these characteristics intercepted in Ukraine occurred on September 13.
“From the moment the first Iranian-made Shahed-136 suicide drone was shot down inside the territory of Ukraine (on September 13, in Kupiansk), the air defense units of the Air Force and other units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have destroyed 223 unmanned aerial vehicles,” the report states.
These devices, which the Russians call Geran-2, “are destroyed with air defense missile units, fighter planes, self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles, man-portable air defense systems, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns and other weapons,” the Army said. ukrainian
According to the source, Ukrainian air defense units have destroyed 85 percent of the Shahed-136 drones used by the Russians.
Drone attacks, whose manufacture is attributed to Iran, have increased in recent days in several areas of Ukraine and have especially affected the country’s energy infrastructure.
In this regard, the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, said on Tuesday that Russia’s request to Iran for “quite simple drones and missiles” shows that Moscow admits its “military and political bankruptcy”.
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*With information from EFE
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