The US accuses Iran of being “directly engaged on the ground” by training Russian forces in Crimea on how to use Iranian-made drones.
On Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claims that Russia had some difficulties operating the Iranian drone systems, so a “relatively small number” of Iranian personnel were sent to assist.
Iran has denied supplying Russia with drones, and Moscow claims the weapons are made in Russia and condemned “baseless accusations and conspiracy theories”.
“We can confirm that Russian military personnel based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs and using them to conduct kinetic strikes across Ukraine, including in attacks against Kyiv in recent days.”
– Ned Price, US State Department Spokesman
