The United States has determined that Iranian soldiers were on the ground in Crimea helping the Russian military operate drones provided by Tehran to carry out attacks across Ukraine, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday.
"We can confirm that Russian military personnel based in Crimea are piloting Iranian drones and using them to conduct kinetic strikes across Ukraine, including attacks on Kiev in recent days," Price said during a regular press briefing, referring to the drones. Reuters.
"We assess that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations"
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a training center for mobilized soldiers in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, today, according to footage from Russian television.
It is the first time since the announcement of the partial mobilization of reservists on September 21 that Putin has visited civilians in training, called to support the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
At one shooting range, the Russian president tried to shoot with an automatic rifle, lying down with a helmet and ear protection, Russian television showed.
Putin spoke to some of the mobilized soldiers.
According to Russian agencies, the Russian president also observed tactical training and firefighting exercises.
He was accompanied by Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, who spoke about the training of mobilized reservists, the agencies said.
On September 21, Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to try to stop the advance of the Ukrainian army in a counter-offensive.
According to the data he published on Friday, 222 thousand people have been mobilized so far, of which 16 thousand are already fighting in Ukraine. Earlier it was announced that a total of 300 thousand people will be mobilized.
Russia announced today that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has permission to visit Olenivka prison, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in July under unspecified circumstances, but that these visits have been suspended due to the security situation.
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Ukraine and the West are concerned that Belarus could take a more active role in the war in Ukraine.
The Russian Air Force carried out scheduled patrol flights on the borders of its ally Belarus on Thursday, Minsk said.
Russia has sent a reinforced task force of 9.000 soldiers and hundreds of pieces of military equipment to Belarus, after President Alexander Lukashenko said last Sunday that Belarus was under threat of attack from Ukraine, reports Reuters.
Russia used Belarus as a staging point for its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, deploying troops and equipment from there for its failed offensive on Kiev in the early days of the war.
Belarus shares a 1.085 kilometer border with Ukraine and is less than 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital.
While Lukashenko has repeatedly argued that Belarus is at risk of attack by Kiev, he has so far not sent forces to fight alongside Russia, despite concerns from Ukraine and the West that he might.
Ukraine denies that it poses a threat to Belarus.
There is not much progress in the negotiations on the Black Sea grain agreement, reports Reuters.
Negotiations to extend a July agreement that restored Ukraine's exports of Black Sea grain and fertilizer are not making much progress because Russia's concerns are not being adequately taken into account, Russian Ambassador Gennady Gatilov said in Geneva on Thursday.
Senior United Nations officials are negotiating with Russia to extend and expand the July 22 accord, which could expire next month if no agreement is reached.
"I wouldn't say that much has been achieved after the last consultations. The dialogue continues," Gatilov told reporters.
Gatilov told Reuters last Sunday that Moscow had raised concerns with the United Nations about the Black Sea grain export agreement and was ready to reject the renewal of the agreement.
The European Union imposed sanctions on an Iranian company and three Iranian generals for undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine by delivering drones to Russia.
Russia is accused of bombing power plants and other infrastructure with Iranian-made Shahed drones.
As Beta reports, the EU has imposed an asset freeze on Shahed Aviation Industries in Iran, as well as an asset freeze and travel ban on three officials, who are also suspected of ties to Iran's drone program.
Iran today rejected accusations that it sent missiles and drones to Russia.
The country's foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdolahian, rejected that claim, saying it was "baseless" and added that Iran has "defense cooperation with Russia, but sending weapons and drones against Ukraine is not a policy."
Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, has dismissed claims that Iran is exporting drones to Russia, calling it disinformation.
"We observed another round of disinformation campaign by Western delegations, while in the UN Council they raised the issue of drones allegedly used by Russia in Ukraine," said the diplomat after the UN Security Council consultations ended.
Poljanski adds that the West is trying to "hit two targets at once by inventing an artificial pretext to put pressure on Russia and Iran," reports Reuters.
"We have our drone industry that produces the drones we need for this campaign and all these accusations are fully on the conscience of our Western colleagues," Poljanski said.
He adds that inscriptions in Russian can be seen on the wreckage of the drones.
"I don't think the Russian language is used much in Iran," concludes Poljanski.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that Russia attacking targets in Ukraine with Iranian-made drones shows its political and military defeat.
"The fact that Moscow is using Iranian weapons after decades of financing the military industry during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods is a defeat," Zelensky said in a video posted on the official website.
Ukraine has said that Russian forces used Iranian-made "kamikaze" drones in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Russia will reconsider cooperation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his staff if Guterres sends experts to Ukraine to examine downed drones that Western powers claim were produced in Iran, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said.
He did not specify what kind of cooperation this could affect, Reuters reported.
Poljanski also told reporters that he is not optimistic about renewing the United Nations-mediated agreement that would continue the Black Sea export of grains and fertilizers from Ukraine.
Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) failed to recognize Russia's aggressive intentions, lost confidence by ignoring warnings from Eastern Europe and led Germany into dangerous energy dependence, admitted this Sunday one of the leaders of the party to which Chancellor Olaf Scholz belongs.
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Tensions between Poland and Hungary - while the Polish government is seeking stronger sanctions against Moscow, Orban blames the EU's policy towards Russia for the rise in energy prices.
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The government of Spain has announced that it will send five generators for the production of electricity to Ukraine, where Russian attacks on its power structure left more than a thousand cities without electricity, which forced the government to introduce restrictions on the entire territory of the country from today.
"In view of the recent attacks (...) the Ministry of Defense (of Spain) will immediately send generators to this country," the Spanish government said in a statement.
These are four 400-kilowatt generators and one 150-kilowatt generator that belong to the Spanish Air Force.
The equipment will be transferred "in the next three days by land to a logistics center" in Poland, from where it will then be sent to Ukraine, the statement added.
About 40 percent of Ukraine's electric power capacity has been knocked out in the last few days due to Russia's attack with missiles and suicide drones.
(BETA)
Two hundred and thirty-ninth is the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Starting today, Ukraine will start limiting the delivery of electricity throughout the country, after Russia hit a certain number of power plants, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
"From 7.00:23.00 a.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX p.m. it is necessary to minimize the use of electricity... if this is not done, you should prepare for temporary power outages," Tymoshenko said on Telegram, as reported by Reuters.
The head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine, Svitlana Onishchuk, said that Russian forces hit the thermal power plant in the city of Burshtin.
Serhii Borzov, the governor of the Vinnytsia region in western Ukraine, said that Russia had carried out attacks on energy facilities in his region.
The mayor of the western city of Lviv, Andrij Sadovij, said on television that it will take months to repair the substations that were damaged in recent days and announced possible interruptions in the supply of electricity while the rehabilitation works are carried out.
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