Iran admits sending drones to Russia before the war

Power cuts across Ukraine, and Zelensky sees no desire on Moscow's part to end the war

A Ukrainian nurse inspects a destroyed medical center near the front line in Kherson.

EPA

Yesterday, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and seven other regions of Ukraine experienced regular and scheduled blackouts, in the wake of devastating Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that heavy fighting in his country has recently focused in the Donbas region around the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in Donetsk region, adding that he sees no desire on Russia's part to negotiate an end to the war.

In detail, the Ukrainian State Electricity Corporation announced, yesterday, regular and scheduled cuts of electricity in Kyiv and seven other regions of Ukraine.

This step comes at a time when the Russian forces continue to bombard Ukrainian cities and villages with missiles and drones, causing damage to power stations, water supplies and other civilian targets.

The planned power outages will occur in the capital and the greater Kyiv region, as well as several surrounding regions, namely Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv, Ukrinyergo, the sole operator of high-voltage transmission lines in Ukraine, said in an online statement yesterday.

The statement said that power outages for certain categories of consumers will occur daily, according to a specific schedule set by the distribution network operators for each region.

The outages are expected to last six hours or more each day.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, Friday evening, that the fierce fighting in his country has recently focused in the Donbass region around the towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region.

"We are holding the positions," Zelensky added, in light of Russia's mobilization of more than 300,000 reservists to enter Ukraine.

He explained that Russia has already lost thousands of soldiers in the region.

Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine will fight to restore its original borders, stressing that "Ukraine will be free."

Zelensky said he saw no desire on Moscow's part to negotiate an end to the war against his country.

He added in the daily video message in Kyiv that Russia is sending tens or hundreds of thousands of people to fight, but those who want to negotiate will not let people die in the "meat grinder".

"We are now ready for peace, a just and equitable peace," Zelensky said.

We have announced his formula several times.”

Above all, he added, Russia must recognize Ukraine's borders and territorial integrity under international law.

The Ukrainian president accused Russia of misleading everyone by finally offering negotiations to put an end to the conflict over foreign interlocutors.

He said that Moscow had indeed announced an end to the partial mobilization of the army's reserve forces, "but in fact, Russia continues to gather people in its regions and in our lands in order to let them die."

In Tehran, Iran admitted, for the first time, yesterday, that it had sent drones to Russia, but stressed that it had supplied them to its ally before the war in Ukraine.

"Russia provided us with a limited number of drones months before the war in Ukraine," the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying.

Abdollahian said that "in a phone conversation with the Ukrainian foreign minister, last week, we agreed that if there was evidence (of Moscow's use of Iranian drones), he would present it to us."

"If the Ukrainian side fulfills its promise, we can discuss this issue in the coming days, and we will take their evidence into account," he added.

The Iranian foreign minister again denied that his country had supplied Russia with missiles, considering the accusations "completely false."

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, agreed to coordinate closely on sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine.

Kishida, in a phone call on Friday night, reported by the Japanese Radio and Television Corporation, yesterday, welcomed the further deepening of relations between Japan and Britain in many areas, and Sunak also expressed his hope to build stronger relations.

The two leaders spoke of the need for the international community to send a clear message that Russia's threats to use nuclear weapons are unacceptable.

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