Events on the battlefield in Kherson, southern Ukraine, developed rapidly, with Russian and Ukrainian forces continuing to bombard them. At the same time, the Ukrainian president took a stand on Iran’s first admission that it had supplied drones to Moscow.
While Russian and Ukrainian forces launched heavy artillery fire at each other, Kyiv said its forces had destroyed Russian positions in the eastern region of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russian forces, on the other hand, announced that they had shot down two Haimas missiles and repelled attacks in Kherson in the south and Donbass and Kharkiv in the east.
This coincided with the announcement by the pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk that their forces were advancing around the strategic town of Mayorsk. Mayorsk is one of the towns known as the cordon of the Donbass region. Meanwhile, fighting in Bachmut and Kherson intensified.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian military said its air defense system shot down two Russian helicopters in Kherson and six drones in the south of the country. In addition, three Russian ammunition depots in Pereaslavl and Kherson were destroyed.
Over the past few days, the Ukrainian army has talked about its continued progress, while the Russians have said they have repelled all attacks. Since then, Kherson State has been in the headlines for battlefield developments.
Pro-Russian authorities have confirmed the evacuation of tens of thousands of Kherson residents in anticipation of an attack by Ukrainian forces to retake the city. The city fell into Russian hands at the beginning of the war that broke out on February 24. Since then, Moscow has announced at the end of September that the region will be annexed to Russia along with three other regions.
Zelensky’s first comment
Against this backdrop, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that, as he put it, Iran “became a lie even when it admitted that it had supplied the drones to Russia.”
In his first comments on the Iranian prime minister’s admission to supply the drones to Russia, Zelensky also said Ukrainian forces shot down at least 10 Iranian drones a day. Tehran, on the other hand, said it provided a limited number of drones before the war.
Zelensky explained his allegations that Ukrainian air defenses had shot down more drones than the “minority” mentioned by Iran.
The Ukrainian president stressed that his country was convinced that Iranian soldiers were training Russians to use the drones.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko also warned of the consequences of Tehran’s support for Moscow. In addition, he said in a statement: “Tehran must realize that the consequences of participating in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine will far outweigh the benefits of supporting Russia.”
The Ukrainian spokesman said the Iranian foreign minister “openly admitted that Iran had supplied Russia with combat drones in the months before Russia invaded Ukraine”.
He also said the foreign ministry would continue to take the strictest measures to prevent Russia from using Iranian weapons in what he called the killing of Ukrainians and the destruction of vital Ukrainian facilities, in coordination with relevant Ukrainian authorities.
“Limited quantities available”
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullahian said Iran had delivered a limited number of drones to Russia in the months leading up to the Ukrainian war.
The minister also said that if Tehran determined that Russia used Iranian drones in the Ukraine war, it would respond to the issue.
On the other hand, Brigadier General Abu al-Fadl Shakarji, spokesman for the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, said that his country played no role in the Ukrainian war, explaining that it had sent Russia The supply of weapons took place before the outbreak of war.
Shukrij said the allegations against Iran by Washington and Kyiv were false, stressing that they were baseless. In addition, he made it clear that Western countries waged war in Ukraine and provided it with various military installations.
Hundreds of Iranian Shahid-136 drones have been shot down, according to the Ukrainian military. Zelensky also said, “On November 5 alone, 11 (Shaheed) drones were shot down.”
Kyiv said about 400 Iranian drones had been used against Ukrainian civilians, while Moscow had ordered about 2,000 more.
On October 16, The Washington Post reported that Iran was preparing to send missiles to Russia.
In response, the European Union and Britain imposed sanctions on three Iranian generals and an arms company accused of supplying the drones to Russia.
In September, Kyiv decided to massively reduce diplomatic relations with Tehran because of the issue.