US State Department spokesman Vidant Patel told reporters, “Any party that has activities with Iran related to drones, ballistic missile development, or the flow of weapons from Iran to Russia should be very careful and take the necessary precautions. The United States will not hesitate to use sanctions or take measures.” right offenders.”
He added that “Russia’s deepening of its alliance with Iran is something that the whole world should see as a major threat.”
Patel continued, quoting US intelligence information published earlier, that some Iranian drones sold to Russia are malfunctioning.
He pointed out that sending these planes shows the “tremendous pressure” on Russia after the losses it incurred in Ukraine, as he put it.
And he indicated that Russia is “frankly obliged to resort to unreliable countries such as Iran in order to obtain supplies and equipment.”
Patel considered that Tehran’s sending of these rallies to Moscow constitutes a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, in which the body supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the agreement concluded in 2015 between major powers and Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions.
At least eight people were killed in Russian strikes carried out by drones on Monday morning on Ukraine, especially on the capital Kyiv and the Sumy region in the northeast of the country.
Zelensky denounces
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the wave of attacks by Russian drones and strongly urged the country’s allies to provide it with air defense weapons.
In a televised address late Monday, Zelensky said: “To ensure that our skies are protected and the possibilities of Russian terrorists are reduced to zero, we need more air defense systems and more missiles for those systems. This is not only in Ukraine’s interest. The fewer opportunities for terrorism for Russia will be. The sooner this war ends.”
He explained that “Russia has no chance on the battlefield, and it is trying to compensate for its military defeats with terrorism. Why this horror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the whole world.”
Iran denies
Iran denied on Monday providing Russia with drones for use in its own operation in Ukraine.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said during a weekly press conference: “The published reports that Iran has provided Russia with drones that have political ambitions, and are published by Western sources. We have not provided weapons to any of the two warring countries.”
According to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat, Ukraine has shot down 37 Russian drones since Sunday evening, which is about 85-86 percent of the number involved in the latest attacks.
“This is a good result of the efforts of our air defenses, and this number will increase in the future,” Ihnat stressed, adding that all the drones entered the skies of Ukraine from the south.
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