A senior US official said on Thursday that Russia’s mistakes in operating drones purchased from Iran prompted the deployment of Iranian personnel to Crimea and warned that Russia could try to trying to get other advanced weapons from Tehran.
John Kirby, a National Security Council official, said at a news conference that Iran had deployed drone trainers to Crimea after the Russian military experienced “premature operational and systematic failures”. ” with drones.
“Either they weren’t driven properly and properly and didn’t hit their target,” Mr Kirby said. “Or the systems themselves have failed and are not performing to the standards that customers expect. So the Iranians decided to transfer some trainers and some technical support to help the Russians use them with better lethality.”
Deployment of trainers to Crimea to try to solve mechanical problems with drones was reported by The New York Times on Tuesday.
Iranian drones have been used in attacks on civilians, including the attacks in Kyiv that left many dead. They have also been used as part of Russia’s push to take down Ukraine’s power grid with drone strikes on power facilities around the country.
“And the reality is this: Tehran is now directly engaged in the war and through the supply of weapons is affecting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, in effect, killing civilians and destroying civilians. destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukraine,” Mr. Kirby said.
Iran has denied sending drones to Russia or deploying trainers to Ukraine. And the Kremlin has denied using Iranian drones to attack civilians.
In private briefings on Thursday, Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department; Brig. General Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman; and Mr. Kirby both confirmed Iran’s presence in Crimea, and called on Iran and Russia to lie about drone sales and attacks in Ukraine.
“There is a lot of evidence of Russia using them against military and civilian targets there,” Mr. Kirby said. “However, both Iran and Russia continue to lie about it.”
Mr. Kirby said the United States was concerned that Russia would try to buy surface-to-surface missiles from Iran. He provided some details, but said Russia’s move to buy weapons from Iran showed Moscow’s desperation. The Washington Post previously reported that Russia is looking to buy advanced missiles from Iran.
Russia has a shortage of advanced missiles, and in some cases it has tried to reuse surface-to-air missiles, with smaller warheads, to hit targets on the ground.
At a briefing at the Pentagon, General Ryder said that the United States considers Iran “complicit in the export of terrorism not only to the Middle East region but also to Ukraine.”
After The New York Times published an article on Tuesday An Iranian spokesman denied the claim and noted that Russia has also deployed Iranian trainers to Crimea.
Mr. Kirby said the United States would continue to work to expose and prevent Iran from providing weapons that could be used against Ukraine. The United States has imposed sanctions on Iranians and Iranian companies involved in the design and delivery of drones to Russia, and Mr. Kirby said those efforts will continue.
“We’re going to make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia,” Kirby said.
