Iranian personnel have been on the ground in Russian-occupied Crimea helping Russian forces conduct drone attacks on Ukraine, the White House said Thursday.
"Today we can confirm that Russian military personnel that are based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs, using them to conduct strikes across Ukraine, including strikes against Kyiv," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a news conference.
"We assess that Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
"We are concerned that Russia may also seek to acquire advanced conventional weapons from Iran such as surface-to-surface missiles that will almost certainly be used to support the war against Ukraine," he added.
He said Iranian personnel who have been deployed to the Crimean Peninsula are comprised of "trainers and some technical support to help the Russians use" Iran-supplied drones "with better lethality."
Kirby also said Iran is "now directly engaged on the ground," but warned that the US will pursue all means to expose, deter and confront Iran's provision of these munitions against the Ukrainian people.
"We're going to continue to vigorously enforce all US sanctions on both the Russian and Iranian arms trade. We're going to make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia," he warned.
Kirby's remarks came one day after State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US has "abundant evidence" that Russia is using Iran-made military drones to attack Ukraine.
"The United States began warning in July that Iran was planning to transfer UAVs to Russia for use in Russia's brutal war against Ukraine, and we now have abundant evidence that these UAVs are being used to strike Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure," Price said in a statement.
Iran has rejected claims that it is supplying domestically-manufactured drones to Russia.
