Iranian troops in Crimea backing Russian drone strikes, US says
United States evidence says that Iranian troops are "directly engaged on the ground" in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure and civilian population.
Iran has sent a "relatively small number" of personnel to Crimea to assist Russian troops in launching Iranian-made drones against Ukraine, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
"The information we have is that the Iranians have put trainers and tech support in Crimea, but it's the Russians who are doing the piloting," Mr Kirby said.
Shahed munitions struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv earlier this week, the so-called "kamikaze" drones were deployed by Russia but are believed to be Iranian-made.
The US first revealed this summer that Russia was purchasing Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles to launch against Ukraine.
Iran has denied selling its munitions to Russia.
"Tehran is now directly engaged on the ground, and through the provision of weapons that are impacting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine," Mr Kirby said.
He added that the US will "pursue all means" to "expose, deter and confront Iran's provision of these munitions against the Ukrainian people".
The Biden administration has imposed new sanctions against Iran over the administration's brutal crackdown on an anti-government protest in recent weeks spurred by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian security custody.
Watch: Iranian-supplied 'suicide drone' being used by Russians against Ukraine.
Russia has been using the 'suicide drones' increasingly against the Ukrainians.
However, the munition in question is, in fact, not a drone – the Iranian Shahed-136 is a loitering munition.
Dr Matthew Powell, RAF College Cranwell's Air Power Expert, told Forces News that the Shahed-136 is being implemented by the Russians due to them "finding the air space increasingly contested over Ukraine", and their assets are being too easily targeted.
He added: "This is a lighter, smaller, harder-to-target asset that then makes it more effective on the battlefield and allows the Russians to at least contest the control of the air and perhaps conduct some ground attack at the same time.
"It's a relatively low-cost asset to produce and to purchase... its propulsion is largely propeller based... it can take large amounts of damage in the field – it's light, it's difficult to target from the ground and from the air due to its size.
The Shahed-136 can cause "destruction, it can cause confusion, it can attack cities, it can attack towns, it can attack formations" but the expert highlighted that the loitering munition's effect, due in part to a limited payload (between 5 and 30kg) is rather "limited in terms of the actual description it does and its ability to turn the tide of the war".
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