BRUSSELS – The European Union’s top diplomat said on Monday that the union is looking for clear evidence of any Iranian involvement in Russia’s conflict on Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has reported a rash of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. Iran denies sending the drones to Russia, and the Kremlin has remained silent.
“We will search for real evidence about Iran’s participation (in the Ukraine war),” Josep Borrell told reporters as he arrived in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU foreign ministers, adding that Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba will attend.
The EU sanctioned Iran’s “morality” police, information minister, and Revolutionary Guards cyber division on Monday for the deadly beating in custody of Mahsa Amini and repression of subsequent protests.
The commanders of the so-called morality police, the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij paramilitary unit, and a uniformed section of the national police were also blacklisted in the list, which was published in the bloc’s official administrative gazette.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Jeppe Kofod, said the EU should respond decisively to additional air strikes on Kyiv on Monday morning, when drones targeted buildings near a central railway station during rush hour.
“What we can see now is that Iranian drones are obviously being used to attack in the middle of Kyiv, which is an atrocity,” Kofod said, adding that the EU needed to take “real steps” in reaction, as well as Tehran cracking down on domestic demonstrators.
According to city mayor Vitali Klitschko, a woman was murdered in the Russian drone attacks on Kyiv on Monday, and one person was still trapped under the wreckage.
“Everything that is happening (here) is terrorism,” he told reporters after drone strikes hit residential structures, which Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said also hit an energy station.
Source: Reuters
