Russia’s recent targeting of Ukraine’s energy and critical infrastructure has destroyed nearly a third of their power stations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
Recommended Stories
The Russian military appeared to start a new chapter in the war last week as they launched widespread drone and missile attacks in the southern, eastern, and central parts of Ukraine. In that time, it has relied on Iranian drones, while Western officials have accused it of targeting civilian infrastructure.
RUSSIA CONTINUES ATTACKS ON KYIV WITH IRANIAN ‘KAMIKAZE’ DRONES
“Another kind of Russian terrorist attacks: targeting [Ukraine’s] energy & critical infrastructure,” the president explained. “Since Oct. 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country. No space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime.”
While a senior U.S. military official told reporters last week that the Russians had fired “hundreds” of missiles since the beginning of this bombardment and “in most” cases “have been used at civilian targets either indiscriminately or certainly in a deliberate way as it relates to infrastructure targets like electricity or bridges or otherwise,” Russians leaders have maintained their claim that they only strike military targets.
“During the day, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued to strike with long-range high-precision air and sea-based weapons on military command and energy systems of Ukraine, as well as arsenals with foreign-made ammunition and weapons. All designated targets were hit,” Lt. Col. Igor Konashenkov, a member of the Russian Defense Ministry, said during a daily briefing on Tuesday.
Russia’s military has increasingly relied on the Iranian “kamikaze” drones as its stockpiles diminish throughout the nearly eight-month conflict.
“We’ll continue to vigorously enforce U.S. sanctions on both the Russian and Iranian arm trade — that’s what we’ll do from here: make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday. “And we’ll stand with our partners throughout the region against that Iranian threat.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
An unnamed U.S. official told Politico that the administration is “absolutely” going to do more about Iranian sales.
“For anybody in the world who is either selling material to Iran that could be used for [unmanned aerial vehicles] or ballistic missiles, or who is involved in flights between Iran and Russia: Do your due diligence, because we are absolutely going to sanction anybody who’s helping Iranians help Russians kill Ukrainians,” the official said.
