Ukrainian, EU Officials Suspect Iranian Involvement as Kamikaze Drones Wreak Havoc on Kyiv
A wave of “suicide drone” attacks inundated Kyiv in recent days, killing an unknown number of Ukrainian civilians. Ukrainian and European Union officials believe the Russian strikes were carried out using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, though Iran denies any involvement or role in supplying such drones to Russia.
Ukrainian military officials said Iranian drones and missiles were used to carry out 26 airstrikes and more than 80 rocket attacks across the country on Monday.
“In the past 13 hours, the Ukrainian military shot down 37 Iranian Shahed-136 drones and three cruise missiles launched by Russian terrorists,” the defense ministry said.
“All night and all morning the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram Messenger.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was investigating whether the drones were supplied by Iran.
“We will look for concrete evidence about the participation [of Iran in the Ukraine war],” Borrell said as he arrived in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU foreign ministers, according to Reuters.
Locals are feeling the pressure of the situation. “I have never been so afraid,” Vitalii Dushevskiy, a resident of one of the bombed-out buildings, told Reuters. “It is murder, it is simply murder, there are no other words for it.”
News reports from the Ukrainian National Resistance Center have argued that Iranian nationals have actually been instrumental in teaching Russian forces how to use and monitor the drones.
PHOTOS: Russian Drones Strike Ukraine
Mykhailo Podolyak, one of President Zelensky’s advisors, has called for Russia’s expulsion from the G20 in the wake of the attacks.
“Those who give orders to attack critical infrastructure to freeze civilians and organize total mobilization to cover the frontline with corpses, cannot sit at the same table with leaders of G20 for sure. Time to put an end to Russian hypocrisy. The Russian Federation must be expelled from all platforms,” he wrote on Twitter
The “kamikaze” attacks have coincided with growing pressure on the Iranian regime following the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman arrested by Iran’s morality police. Street protests and rioting have wracked the country in the weeks since Amini’s death with hundreds of protesters reportedly killed.
These two developments have led many across the EU to consider imposing fresh sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation. “What we can see now: Iranian drones are used apparently to attack in the middle of Kyiv, this is an atrocity,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod noted.
