Russia has warned the United Nations against investigating its use of drones in Ukraine, amid accusations the weapons came from Iran and were used in violation of UN arms restrictions on the Middle Eastern country.
The United States, France and the United Kingdom called a closed-door Security Council meeting on the drones after an attack on Kyiv on Monday that killed at least five people, and caused widespread damage to power stations and other civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine says its military has shot down more than 220 Iranian drones, formally known as uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV), in little more than a month and has invited UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Ukraine to inspect some of the wreckage it has collected.
Speaking after the Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy insisted the weapons had been made in Russia and condemned “baseless accusations and conspiracy theories”.
He called on Guterres and his staff to “abstain from engaging in any illegitimate inves
tigation. Otherwise, we will have to reassess our collaboration with them, which is hardly in anyone’s interests,” he told reporters.
The US and European Union say they have evidence that Iran supplied Russia with Shahed-136s, low-cost drones that explode on landing. Washington says any arms transfer was in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 which is part of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a now moribund deal to curb Iran’s nuclear activities and prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon.
Tehran denies supplying the drones to Russia and earlier this week said it was ready for “dialogue and negotiation with Ukraine to clear these allegations” after Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine should break diplomatic ties with Tehran.
On Wednesday, Iran’s UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, rejected the “unfounded and unsubstantiated claims” on the drone transfers and said that Tehran, which has abstained in votes on the war, wanted a “peaceful resolution” of the conflict, which began when Russia sent its troops into Ukraine on February 24.
“Iran is of the firm belief that none of its arms exports, including UAVs, to any country” violate resolution 2231, he added.
Aljazeera
