kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Ukrainian official said Monday that Western partner countries must allow Ukraine to use weapons they supplied to strike military depots in Russia because of strong suspicions that Iran supplied ballistic missiles to the Kremlin. war effort.
The United States told his allies Iran believes it sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia as part of its war in Ukraine, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press over the weekend.
Western countries backing Ukraine in the war have been reluctant to let its military strike targets on Russian soil, fearing they would be drawn into the biggest European conflict since World War II, but the head of Ukraine’s presidential office said “protection is not escalation.”
“In response to the delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia, Ukraine must be allowed to destroy warehouses containing these missiles with Western weapons in order to prevent terrorism,” Andrii Yermak said on his Telegram channel. He did not specify which country supplied the missiles.
Russia has already subjected Ukraine to repeated and devastating long-range attacks. missile and drone bombings which have killed more than 10,000 civilians since the war began in February 2022, according to a United Nations tally. The dams have also electricity production paralyzed.
Ukraine, however, refused to give in and recently launched a bold incursion in Russia’s Kursk region, while trying to contain a Russian advance in eastern Ukraine Donetsk region.
Russia has been receiving Iranian-made Shahed drones since 2022. The possible shipment of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia has also alarmed Western governments as President Vladimir Putin reaches out to other countries for support.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday of reports about Iranian missiles that “such information is not always true.”
He added, however: “Iran is our important partner. We are developing our trade and economic relations. We are developing our cooperation and dialogue in all possible areas, including the most sensitive ones, and we will continue to do so in the interests of the peoples of our two countries.”
In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani denied that Tehran had armed Russia with missiles.
“We strongly reject allegations that Iran played a role in sending weapons to any side of the war and we believe that these allegations are politically motivated by some parties,” Kanaani said.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern” about this possibility on Saturday.
“Iran must completely and permanently stop supplying weapons to Russia in order to prove with actions, not words, the sincerity of its political leaders’ statements about their non-involvement in fueling the Russian war machine of death,” a statement said.
CIA Director William Burns warned in London this weekend, on the growing and “troubling” defense relationships involving Russia, China,…
