Following allegations that Washington has requested Teheran to cease selling drones to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that Russia’s military cooperation with Iran will not buckle under geopolitical pressure.
Ryabkov stated, “There are no changes, and cooperation with Iran will continue,” according to a report from the Russian state news agency RIA on Saturday. We reject the demands of the United States and its satellites because we are independent states.
The Financial Times reported earlier this month, citing an Iranian official and another person familiar with the talks, that the U.S. is pressuring Iran to cease selling the weaponized drones that Russia is using in the conflict in Ukraine.
Last year, Russia started employing drones developed in Iran called the Shahed to assault Ukraine’s interior. The so-called kamikaze unmanned drones may take off and detonate instantly without a runway.
Iran has acknowledged providing drones to Russia, but has previously claimed that these drones were supplied before to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian authorities have denied using Iranian drones in Ukraine.
Since August 2022, Iran has sent several hundred drones to Russia, according to a White House official who spoke in June. (Editing by Christian Schmollinger; reporting by Lidia Kelly from Warsaw)