ANALYSIS – The proxy war between Ukraine and Iran has heated up with Ukraine bluntly claiming that its forces killed an unspecified number of likely Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military advisors helping Russia inside Ukrainian territory.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's national security and defense council has confirmed reports that Iranian advisors were killed as the result of a Ukrainian military strike in Russian-occupied Crimea last month, according to a report from The Guardian on Thursday.
Danilov did not give a specific number of Iranian casualties but said that “they were on our territory. We didn't invite them here, and if they collaborate with terrorists and participate in the destruction of our nation, we must kill them.”
Israeli press reports in October said that 10 Iranian advisors were killed by Ukrainian military strikes in occupied Crimea.
Danilov added that the Iranians were in Crimea to help Russian forces pilot the Shahed-136 armed ‘kamikaze' drones Iran has supplied to Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Iran has sold Russia 2,400 Shahed drones.
Yahoo News noted on October 21 that:
…White House spokesman John Kirby said that the United States has evidence that the Iranian instructors are present in Russia-occupied Crimea. According to Washington, they supervise Russian drone strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian population.
The New York Times previously reported that instructors from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrived in occupied Crimea to assist Russian drone operators.
Russia has stepped up its air and drone strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure since Oct. 10, making heavy use of Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
The European Union (EU) has also said it has evidence of Iran providing Russia with suicide drones to attack Ukraine.
Meanwhile, U.S. media reports have suggested that Iran had also agreed to transfer short-range ground-to-ground ballistic missiles to Russia.
The Guardian added:
After initially denying the presence of Iranian drones in Ukraine, the Tehran government has claimed that it had supplied a “small number” of the unmanned aircraft to Russia months before Vladimir Putin launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine in February. It denies sending Iranian trainers to help Russians fly the drones from occupied territory.
Danilov also said it was still unclear if Iranian ballistic missiles had been shipped to Russia for use against Ukraine, but they would be violating international sanctions if they were. As The Guardian further reports:
“We are trying to answer this question and we'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen,” Danilov said. “But if it does happen, it will tell us two things. First, that Russia has no capability of manufacturing their own missiles, at least in the numbers that would allow it to continue a large-scale war. Second, if a country that has been under sanctions since 1979 has a capability of producing such weapons, what kind of sanctions are we talking about? So it raises a big question about enforcement.”
But Ukraine wants everyone to know that none of this will be tolerated by Ukraine.
To make sure the Iranians and everyone else get that message, Danilov made it clear that any further Iranian military presence in Ukraine would be targeted, attacked and killed.
“You shouldn't be where you shouldn't be,” Danilov said. ALD
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
READ NEXT: Iran's Violent Protests a Powder Keg for Regime – Where's Biden? >>
Its Biden and Kerry again, refusing to enforce Iranian sanctions and by doing so encouraging Iran to build weapons and even send them to Russians…what a crock!
Kerry is married to the daughter of the Iranian chief negotiator in Iran for the Nuke deal. No conflict of interest there…
Obama’s and Biden’s Iran
It’s important that Israel and the US take out all Iranian nuclear and drone manufacturing facilities now. Iran is now in turmoil and Israel has the best Prime Minister now in place. The time is ripe to obliterate Iran’s military capability. Go Israel and US.
If we are patient perhaps the Iranian people might do it for us. I was pleased to read they had torched the sacred residence of the departed Ayatollah Khomeini.
I would be tragic if not for the fact they will be cavorting with virgins in Muslim paradise. They will be gobbling down vast quantities of dates, figs, dried apricots, roast mutton, camel, and goat.kabob..
It’s way past time for NATO and the US to just give Ukraine the long range weapons they need, then get out of the way and let them take the war to the Russians, where ever they are. Unless they can destroy locations where there is a build-up of troops and equipment, even if it’s across the so called border, then Russia will just sit back and keep lobbing rockets and bombs on Ukraine until there is nothing left standing in the country, and most of the people are either dead or have fled the country. Ukraine will cease to exist.Is the west really worried that much about what Putin might do? Whatever stupid stunt he pulls, the west can more than match it. Ukraine has more than proven that the Russian military is nothing but a paper tiger.