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September 24 (Portal) – Iran is planning “appropriate measures” in response to Ukraine’s decision to downgrade diplomatic ties over the reported delivery of Iranian drones to Russia, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday.
Nasser Kanaani said Ukraine should “refrain from being influenced by third parties who seek to destroy ties between the two countries,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine said on Friday it would revoke the Iranian ambassador’s accreditation and significantly reduce the number of diplomatic staff at the Iranian embassy in Kyiv over Tehran’s decision to provide Russian forces with drones, a move President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as “a Cooperation with Evil”.
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Kanaani said Ukraine’s decision was “based on unconfirmed reports and the result of media frenzy by foreign parties”.
He wasn’t referring directly to drones. Iran has previously refused to supply drones to Russia, but the hardline daily Kayhan said on Saturday that “hundreds of armed drones” had been sold.
“For some time now, Iranian drones have been conducting anti-NATO operations in the skies of Ukraine,” said the newspaper, whose chief is appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Military authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday they shot down at least seven Iranian drones, including six Shahed-136 “kamikaze” planes, over the sea near the ports of Odessa and Pivdennyi on Friday.
This included – for the first time in Ukraine – a Mohajer-6, a larger Iranian drone, the southern military command said.
Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said in an English-language tweet on Saturday that Iran supports Russia “by giving modern drones to (a) backward country for the killing of Ukrainians”.
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Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; writing by Dominic Evans; Edited by Frances Kerry and Peter Graff
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