Iran admits sending drones to Russia before the Ukraine war

Iran admitted for the first time on Saturday that it had provided Moscow with drones, but said it had sent them before the war in Ukraine, where Russia uses drones to target power plants and civilian infrastructure.

Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iran's foreign minister, said a "small number" of drones had been sent to Russia a few months before Russian forces entered Ukraine on February 24.

In Iran's most detailed response to date on the issue of drones, the minister denied Tehran's continued supply of drones to Moscow.

"The uproar made by some Western countries that Iran provided missiles and drones to Russia to help in the war in Ukraine - the part related to the missiles is completely wrong," the official IRNA news agency quoted Amir Abdollahian as saying.

"The part about the drones is correct, Russia supplied us with a small number of drones months before the Ukraine war," she added.

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