The White House announced Thursday that Iranian soldiers are “on the ground in Crimea” to assist Russian forces in carrying out Iranian-made drone attacks in Ukraine.
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“Today we can confirm that Russian soldiers stationed in Crimea have piloted Iranian drones, and used them to carry out strikes in Ukraine, including Kyiv in recent days,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council on the US presidency.
He added: “We believe that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and helped Russia in these operations.” “I don’t have the number of Iranians who are in Crimea,” he said, noting that they are still on the ground alongside Russian forces.
“Russia has received dozens of drones so far and will continue to receive more,” the spokesman continued, noting that the United States is concerned that Russia is now seeking Iranian conventional weapons such as surface-to-surface missiles. in Ukraine.
Mr. Kirby explained that the Iranians in Ukraine were trained and technical and that the strikes that inflicted severe damage to Ukrainian infrastructure were carried out by Russian soldiers.
He stressed that “Tehran is now directly involved on the ground.”
“The United States will do everything in its power to detect, deter, and combat these arms shipments,” he added. “We will continue to vigorously impose sanctions on arms sales from both Russia and Iran,” he added.
