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Iran acknowledged this Saturday the sale of the destructive kamikaze drones to Russia, but assured that it did so before the start of the invasion of Ukraine. For a few weeks, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, accused Tehran of selling Moscow weapons that have strongly affected the Ukrainian electricity network. The Iranian government defended itself against the accusations and requested evidence proving its support for the Army commanded by Vladimir Putin.
This Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hosein Amir Abdolahian said that his country sent Shahed-136 drones to the Russian government, but later clarified that it was made before knowing Moscow’s plans against kyiv.
“The drones that we have given to Russia are from months before the war in Ukraine,” Abdolahian said after holding a meeting in Tehran with deputy ministers from several countries, in order to respond to the Ukrainian government’s accusations of having violated the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
The Iranian Foreign Minister assured that his relationship with Moscow is based on neighborliness and mutual benefit, after responding to his Ukrainian counterpart that he has no evidence to ensure that his country supports Russian actions.
“If it is confirmed that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue,” Abdolahian stressed.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko accused Abdolahian on Facebook of spreading “hints about an alleged refusal on the Ukrainian side,” adding that “Ukraine is taught to trust only facts.”
The Ukrainian government and Western countries have also said that Iran continues to send kamikaze drones to Russia, allegations they strongly deny.
“This fuss made by some Western countries that Iran has provided missiles and drones to Russia to help in the war in Ukraine, the missile part is completely wrong,” the Iranian foreign representative said.
The fury of kamikaze drones
Until today, Iran had denied allegations that its country had sold Russia the so-called “suicide” drones, which have the ability to carry out long-distance attacks, with a radius of more than 2,500 kilometers.
President Zelensky had said that the Kremlin bought 2,400 kamikaze drones, to which Minister Abdolahian said it was “a small amount”, without giving an exact figure.
Until last Saturday, October 22, the Ukrainian authorities reported that at least 1.5 million homes had been left without electricity, after registering attacks on civil infrastructure, especially power plants in the Kharkiv region.
In September, Russia began a new military strategy in its so-called “special operation”, after Ukraine had announced that it had recovered significant amounts of its territory in the counteroffensive against the Russian Army.
Kamikaze drones are designed to explode on their enemy target and cause maximum damage, which has worked for Russia in its plan to “freeze” Ukraine with the approaching winter.
On October 18, the European Union sanctioned three people and an Iranian company, after accusing them of being responsible for the development of kamikaze drones and their distribution to Russia.
With EFE and Reuters
