The Iranian government said Tuesday that Ukraine has not presented evidence to back up its accusations of Russia’s use of Iranian-made drones in the invasion, unleashed on February 24 on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Iranian Defense Minister Mohamad Reza Ashtiani revealed that experts from Tehran and Kiev had held a meeting to discuss the situation and added that «the Ukrainian side has not submitted any documents on Russia’s use of Iranian drones».
«They have reserved it for the next sessions,» he stressed, while denying that Iran has delivered these devices to Russia for use in the framework of the conflict, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.
He said that Iran and Russia have long-standing military cooperation and stressed that they have not initiated contacts for the use of Iranian-made drones in the framework of the war in the European country.
Ukraine announced in November the existence of talks with Tehran on the use of these devices. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko stressed that Kiev «continues to take the most decisive measures to prevent Russia from using Iranian weapons for the war against Ukraine».
The United States has denounced that Russia bought hundreds of drones on the Iranian market for use in the war, although subsequently both the media and the Ukrainian authorities have detailed that most of the parts from which these types of weapons have been made are of European and American manufacture.
