The U.S. has gathered “abundant evidence” that Russian forces have been using Iranian drones to strike Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure, the State Department revealed on Wednesday.
The U.S. joined the U.K. and France in raising the issue of Iran supplying the “kamikaze” drones at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. The U.N. secretariat briefed the Council members on the topic.
President Joe Biden’s administration first warned of Russia’s attempts to purchase drones from Iran in July, though Iranian officials have denied the claims.
RUSSIA CONTINUES ATTACKS ON KYIV WITH IRANIAN ‘KAMIKAZE’ DRONES
“We will not hesitate to use our sanctions and other appropriate tools on all involved in these transfers,” Price stated. “We will also continue to surge unprecedented security assistance to Ukraine, including air defense capabilities so that Ukraine can defend itself from these weapons.”
Russian forces have used Iran’s “kamikaze” drones in a consistent campaign of missile strikes over the past week and a half that have rained down on dozens of cities and villages across Ukraine. Some of the recent strikes, which have killed dozens of civilians, targeted cities or areas that had largely not been on the Front lines of the war, such as Kyiv. A senior U.S. military official told reporters last week that the number of missiles they had fired during this bombardment is in the “hundreds,” but did not narrow that down.
Russia’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy and critical infrastructure during this campaign has destroyed nearly a third of their power stations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week, while the Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday that it has destroyed more than 220 of the Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones since Sept. 13.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed martial law in the four territories he annexed last month in an attempt to maintain his control in those regions.
“The Kyiv regime refused to recognize the will and choice of the people, declining any proposals for talks. On the contrary, shelling continues, and civilians continue to die,” Putin said in a meeting with his Security Council. “The neo-Nazis are using plainly terrorist methods, plotting sabotage at critical infrastructure, attempting to murder members of local authorities.”
Putin’s declaration of martial law gives the military sweeping powers, including the right to set up roadblocks and search vehicles, detain those who violate curfew or refuse to show documentation, and suspend civil liberties, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.
“I think that Vladimir Putin finds himself in an incredibly difficult position,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question about the imposition of martial law on Wednesday. “And what it reflects, to me, is it seems his only tool available to him is to brutalize individual citizens in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens, to try to intimidate them into capitulating. They’re not going to do that.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the implementation of martial law “another sign of Putin’s desperation,” in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News. “Now he’s saying that he’s declaring martial law in places that he claims have people that somehow want to be part of Russia. That speaks to his desperation.”
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Amid all the latest developments, there remains the underlying threat that Putin could resort to using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, which he has not ruled out throughout the course of the war.
“We’ve been very clear with President Putin directly and privately about the severe consequences that would follow from any use of a nuclear weapon. We’re watching this very, very carefully. We have not seen reason at this point to change our own nuclear posture,” Blinken added, while Biden warned earlier this month that the use of a nuclear weapon “could lead to Armageddon.”
