According to the US Secretary of State, over the past few days, Russia has inflicted "many strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine," many of which are on the account of Iranian-made dronesWASHINGTON, October 21.
/tass/. Washington is helping Kiev strengthen its defensive capabilities to combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the manufacturer of which may be Tehran, and is also taking measures to prevent their supply for use in Ukraine. This was stated on Friday by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at a press conference at the State Department.
"We continue to strengthen the defensive capabilities of our partners, including in Ukraine, in terms of countering drones or any other systems that Iran may supply," he said. "Back in July, we warned about Iran's plans to provide drones to Russia for their use in Ukraine. Then we saw that work was underway on this, and now we are already seeing it in reality. <...> We believe that Russia has already received dozens of such drones from Iran and potentially more can be delivered," Blinken claimed.
According to the Secretary of State, over the past few days, Russia has inflicted "many strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine," many of which, according to the diplomat, are due to Iranian-made drones.
"In addition to constant warnings <...>, we have also taken actions against Iran supplying drones to anyone who uses them for aggressive and dangerous purposes," the head of American diplomacy also said. "Whether it's Yemen, Iraq or the potential use of them against Israel, as well as in other countries, we imposed sanctions against organizations involved in this that we could figure out," he said. "Now this has spread to Ukraine through Russia, and we are aimed at countering this, so that whatever happened," Blinken added.
Iran's Permanent Representative to the UN, Amid Said Iravani, earlier noted that Tehran categorically rejects accusations of transferring drones to Moscow for use in Ukraine. Dmitry Polyansky, the first Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, also denied such versions.
