DISINFO: West sanctioned Russia and Iran under the false pretext of drone supplies
SUMMARY
Schizophrenic West sanctioned again Russia and Iran under the pretext of a lie. The US, UK, the EU and New Zealand imposed new sanctions on Iran justifying them by its repression of protests, and also on its drone supplies to Russia which never happened. An Iranian top official affirmed that Ukraine didn’t present evidence about the use of Iranian drones in the Slavic country. It doesn’t matter, as many allegations on the use of Iranian drones in the Ukrainian conflict are based on baseless statements and rumours. Falsity is the only weapon of the West to impose sanctions.
RESPONSE
The claim is patently false. Despite early denials, there is ample evidence of the use of Iranian drones by Russian invading forces in Ukraine, including images, wreckage, expert identification and the examination of at least one downed unmanned aerial vehicle in good condition. After these denials became untenable in face of the growing mass of proof, on 05 November 2022 Iran shifted its narrative and admitted that it had indeed supplied drones to Russia but only months before the war, although this is contradicted by a mid-October report by Reuters news agency quoting four Iranian officials who confirmed that Tehran had recently agreed to supply more Iranian drones to Russia along with missiles, more than half a year after the start of the war.
There is also further circumstantial evidence of Iran’s drone deliveries for its use in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. On 18 October 2022, Ukraine invited UN experts to examine debris from downed Iranian drones. Russia reacted by calling on UN officials to “abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation” and threatening to “reassess [Russia’s] collaboration” with the United Nations. US intelligence also affirmed that Iranian trainers were in Crimea to help Russian forces operate the Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles. On 20 October 2022, Russian military expert Ruslan Pukhov inadvertently admitted on camera in RBC TV that Russia is using Iranian suicide drones. US intelligence reports distributed to some NATO partners also affirm that Iran reached an agreement to assemble Iranian-designed drones on Russian soil, according to The Washington Post.
This growing mass of evidence has led to UK, US and several packages of EU sanctions, including one on 12 December 2022 against Iran and on 16 December 2022 against Russia. The European Union strongly condemns and considers any type of Iranian military support unacceptable, including deliveries of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs - “drones”), to Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, and recalls that any transfer of certain combat drones and missiles to or from Iran without prior permission by the UN Security Council are in violation of UNSCR 2231.
Claiming that there is no reason to sanction Russia is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, while denying Russia’s illicit actions when it is called out or labelling these accusations as fake is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique. See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that war crimes accusations are Ukrainian propaganda against Russia, that Russia is falsely accused of misdeeds by simply affirming that its responsibility is “highly likely”, that anti-Russian sanctions are illegal pressure, or that sanctions on Russia and China are an artificial attempt to maintain a vanishing Western hegemony.