Russia-Ukraine War: Zelensky Accuses Iran Of Lying Over Support Of Russia

Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has accused Iran of lying and terrorist cooperation in supporting Russia's conflict in Ukraine after Iran admitted for the first time that it had provided drones to Moscow prior to the invasion.

The West believes Russia used Iranian kamikaze drones to attack critical infrastructure in Ukraine, but Iran and Moscow have previously denied this.

Following the attacks on power plants, much of Ukraine has experienced blackouts. Western officials have accused Iran of supplying drones to Russia as well as training Russian drone pilots on the ground.

Previously, Tehran denied the allegations, however, on Saturday, Iran's foreign minister said that a small number of the vehicles had been sent to Moscow.

“Many months before the Ukraine war, we provided a limited number of drones to Russia,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in Tehran.

President Zelensky, on the other hand, accused Iran of lying “even in this confession” in an address on his Telegram channel.

Despite Iran's claim that it only supplied Russia with a few drones, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine shot down about ten Iranian drones daily.

Zelensky warned Iran that its support for Russia would backfire. He said, we know that Iranian instructors taught Russian terrorists how to use drones and Tehran has remained largely silent on the subject.

“And if Iran continues to lie about the obvious, the world will make even more efforts to investigate the terrorist cooperation between the Russian and Iranian regimes, as well as what Russia pays Iran for such cooperation,” he added.

The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have all imposed sanctions on Iran for supplying drones to Russia for use in the conflict.

Russia has used kamikaze drones, named after Japanese suicide pilots during WWII because they explode on impact, to attack critical infrastructure sites across Ukraine.

As a result, rolling blackouts and electricity usage restrictions have been imposed just as the weather turns cold for the winter.

Some Western leaders have called the attacks “war crimes,” because civilian infrastructure cannot be deliberately targeted under the Geneva Conventions, which define the rules of war.

Because electricity usage had increased compared to the same time last week, Ukraine's national grid operator imposed additional restrictions in some regions on Saturday.