Ukraine Accuses Iran of Violating UN Ban on Drone Transfers

Ukraine is accusing Iran of violating a U.N. Security Council ban on the transfer of drones capable of flying 300 kilometers 

FILE - This undated photograph released by the Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Directorate shows the wreckage of what Kyiv has described as an Iranian Shahed drone downed near Kupiansk, Ukraine. Ukraine's military claimed on Sept. 13, 2022, for the first time that it encountered an Iranian-supplied suicide drone used by Russia on the battlefield. Russia’s unleashing of successive waves of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over Ukraine has multiple aims — take out key targets, crush morale and ultimately drain the enemy's war chest and weapons trying to defend against them as the conflict evolves into a longer war of attrition. (Ukrainian military's Strategic Communications Directorate via AP, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine has accused Iran of violating a U.N. Security Council ban on the transfer of drones capable of flying 300 kilometers and invited U.N. experts to visit the country to inspect Iranian-origin drones being used by Russia against civilian targets.

A letter from Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and members of the U.N. Security Council was obtained by The Associated Press ahead of a closed council meeting late Wednesday requested by Britain, France and the United States on Iran’s sale of hundreds of drones to Russia.

U.S. Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington on Wednesday that the United States will join Britain and France in raising the issue at the council meeting.

Kyslytsya tweeted Wednesday that the issue of Iranian drones used against civilians and civilian infrastructure will also be raised at an open council meeting on Ukraine on Friday.