Iran And Russia 'Continue To Lie' — State Department

The U.S. State Department on Thursday confirmed that Russia is launching devastating drone attacks against Ukraine from its military bases on the occupied Crimean peninsula, aided by Iranian military personnel providing technical assistance and training, TURAN'a Washington correspondent reports.

"We can confirm that Russian military personnel based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs and using them to conduct kinetic strikes across Ukraine, including in strikes against Kyiv in recent days," spokesperson Ned Price said during a daily press briefing.

Washington assesses that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations. The Kremlin has received dozens of these UAVs so far and will likely continue to receive additional shipments in the future, Price said.

In spite of all of this, he added, "we've seen Russia and Iran continue to lie, continue to claim that there's no there there. The Iranians continue to claim that they are not providing this material and for indisputable proof to continue to emerge, and some of that proof was put on display before the UN Security Council..."

The confirmation from Washington raises the stakes for the international community to respond to both Russia and Iran. Price said the U.S. is exploring new sanctions.

Asked by TURAN's Washington correspondent whether the West had done everything it could to prevent Iran from aligning with Russia in Ukraine, Price said the U.S. and its allies have not "waited or sought to downplay our concerns" about this and that Iran's UAV program has been "a concern of ours since the outset of this [Biden] administration," he claimed.

"Last October, we announced a series of sanctions – we designated members of a network of companies and individuals that provided critical support to Iran's UAV program and to the IRGC and to the Quds Force as well," he reminded.

Washington will also continue supporting Ukraine's ability to defend itself against the threat from not only Iranian UAVs, Pice said.

"We provided 1,400 Stinger missiles, a surface-to-air system, that our Ukrainian partners have used effectively. We have enabled countries to provide their own sophisticated air defense systems to Ukraine," he added.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.