US monitors growing Iran-Russia proximity in Ukraine

Kyiv/Washington: Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of Ukrainian Armed Forces said that over the last 2 days, Ukrainian air defence forces shot down 51 Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones besides 10 cruise missiles and a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft.

The United States said the involvement of Iran is being carefully watched, and to a question on the United States’ assessment of how influential Iran has become over the past few months in Russia’s war in Ukraine, the US State Department said Washington had been warning since July 2022 that Iran was planning to sell UAVs to Russia for use against Ukraine.

“We also exposed publicly that Russia has received drones from Iran; that this was part of Russia’s plan to import hundreds of  Iranian UAVs of various types; and that Russian operators continue to receive training in Iran on how to use these systems,” Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson, US Department of State, told media persons in Washington.

Washington stated that Russia deepening alliance with Iran is something the whole world should, especially those in the region and across the world,  should be seen as a profound threat and something that any country should pay very close attention to.

“This is something that we’re continuing to monitor closely on our end, and we’re in close touch with our allies and partners, including those in the United Nations, to address Iran’s dangerous proliferation of weapons to Russia,” Patel said. He warned that anyone doing business with Iran that could have any link to UAVs or ballistic missile developments or the flow of arms from Iran to Russia should be very careful and do their due diligence.

“The U.S. will not hesitate to use sanctions or take actions against perpetrators. I don’t have specific actions to read out or preview, but this is something that we’re continuing to pay very close attention to,” he said.

There were unconfirmed reports about Iran preparing to send additional weaponry, specifically short-range ballistic missiles, from Iran to Russia. Washington did not deny the reports and Patel said, “I don’t have anything to offer on that.”

He though added that “this continued action” of Iran and Russia closening their relationship was a reminder of how the Russian military was suffering from major supply shortages in  Ukraine in large part because of the sanctions and export controls that are being enforced by the  United States and its allies.

“As I think the Treasury Department noted last week, Russia has lost over 6,000 pieces of equipment since the start of this war, and there is enormous pressure on its defence industry to replace those losses. Russia is being – it’s being forced, frankly, to resort to unreliable countries like Iran for supplies and equipment, and our information has noted that some of these UAVs that had been noted in these transfers have been experiencing numerous failures. So again, this is going to be something that we play very close attention to and we’ll take appropriate action as needed,” Patel said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine today claimed at least 25 persons were killed in the last 24 hours, in shelling by Russian troops in the Mykolaiv, the Dnipropetrovsk, the Kharkiv, the Kyiv, the Zaporizhzhia, the Zhytomyr, the Donetsk, the Sumy, the Luhansk, the Mykolaiv, and the Kherson regions. 24 citizens were injured as per conservative estimates, as per the information from Regional Military Administrations.

The press service of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office stated that Russian occupiers shelled an object of the energy supply in Kyiv on October 18. 3 people were killed. 1 person was injured.

Due to shellings, as of October 18, there was no electricity in 552 Ukrainian settlements, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the President’s Office, said today.