Iran Denies Sending Drones Clearly Seen In Video Footage Striking Kyiv – The Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv was once again hit by kamikaze drone strikes on Monday morning, with the civilian death toll from the attacks rising to four by Monday afternoon.
NEW VIDEO:
▶️#Kyiv was attacked this night/morning with #Iranian Shaded-136 kamikaze drones.
▶️No valuable infrastructure was hit, but the damage is significant.#Ukraine️ #UkraineWarNews #UkraineWar pic.twitter.com/5H6flU9uUS— Tibolimon (@OMonteyne2) October 17, 2022
“Today, as a result of the occupiers’ attack on a residential building in Kyiv, 4 people have already died,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Monday. “Among them is a young family that was expecting a child.”
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, described how 28 drones were sent to Kyiv in the early morning, with a small number of those drones successfully striking residential buildings and civilian infrastructure soon after. At least five explosions were heard throughout the city.
It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that he did not set out to “destroy” Ukraine and that he did not see any need for more indiscriminate missile and drone strikes across major urban population centers in Ukraine.
Only days after making the claim, it seems clearer than ever that those comments may have been a short-term ploy to lull Kyiv into a false sense of security, or perhaps to discourage NATO from following through on plans to arm Ukraine with more air defense systems.
Video footage and photographs shared on social media show the huge impact of the drones landing in the city. One series of images taken by AFP photographer Yasuyoshi Chiba showed a fixed-wing drone flying low and causing a huge explosion.
AFP photographer @YasuyoshiChiba captured the moment a kamikaze drone dived on its target this morning in Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/L5f9LHlGIF
— Benjamin Pittet (@COUPSURE) October 17, 2022
The image appeared to show an Iranian Shahed 136 drone, renamed the “Geran 2” by Russia. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence believes that 37 of these drones were shot down between Sunday and Monday, along with three cruise missiles, all launched by the Russian military.
Iran Denies Sending Kamikaze Drones
Despite the clear video footage and images of the Iranian-made drones causing chaos in Kyiv this morning, Iran continues to deny supplying Russia with the aircraft and weapons.
In a call between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Portuguese counterpart on Friday, Iran reportedly denied supplying Russia with any weapons – including drones – for use in Ukraine. Reports claim that Iran said it “has not and will not” do so.
“We believe that the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war, so we have not considered and do not consider war to be the right way either in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria or Yemen,” Amit Abdollahian reportedly said in the call.
Both Ukrainian and American intelligence, however, suggests that not only did Iran send the drones, but that more aircraft and missiles are on their way.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
