Ukraine warns Iran of consequences for supporting Russia

Iran

Kiev has warned Iran that the “consequences” of supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine are greater than the “benefits”.

The reaction comes after Iran admitted for the first time that it supplied Moscow with drones, but only before the start of the war.

The West believes that Russia has used Iranian “kamikaze” drones to strike key infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, but Iran and Moscow have previously denied this.

Outages have hit much of Ukraine following attacks on power plants.

Western officials have accused Iran of supplying drones to Russia and providing personnel on the ground to train Russian drone pilots.

Tehran previously denied the allegations, but on Saturday Iran’s foreign minister said a small number of the vehicles had been sent to Moscow.

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

Ukraine hit back, saying Iran’s support for Russia would ultimately backfire.

“Tehran must understand that the consequences of cooperation in the crimes of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine will be much greater than the benefit of Russia’s support,” said the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko.