Live updates: Russia’s war in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Iran’s claim about sending a “limited” number of drones to Russia a lie in his nightly address Saturday.
He also disputed the timeline presented by Tehran.
“Today there were messages from Iran, from official representatives. There they decided to admit that they did supply drones for Russian terror. But even in this confession, they lied,” Zelensky said. “We shoot down at least 10 Iranian drones every day, and the Iranian regime claims that it allegedly gave little — and even before the start of the full-scale invasion.”
Zelensky said that if “Iran continues lying about the obvious,” even more efforts will be made to investigate “the terrorist cooperation between the Russian and Iranian regimes and what Russia is paying Iran for such cooperation.”
What Iran said: Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said during a press conference Saturday that Tehran had provided a limited number of the weapons before Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Some Western countries have accused Iran of helping the war in Ukraine by providing drones and missiles to Russia,” Amirabdollahian said. “The part regarding missiles is completely wrong. The part about drones is correct, we did provide a limited number of drones to Russia in the months before the start of the war in Ukraine.”
