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By  Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC   TIMES

WASHINGTON  DC  – The Defense Department assesses that Iranians have been in Ukraine to assist Russia with the drone operation there,  a pentagon spokesperson  told reporters at  a media briefing at the Pentagon Thursday.  “We continue to see Iran be complicit in terms of exporting terror, not only in the Middle East region, but now also to Ukraine,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary said.  Ryder basically confirmed White House reports that   Iranian military personnel have visited Crimea to assist with Russian operations targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine using drones.  Meanwhile, Russia is strongly denying that the drones are Iranian.  Dmitry Polyanskiy, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, said this week that Moscow vehemently disputes U.S. and Ukraine officials  allegations Iran is supplying drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.  Moscow’s UN ambassador made the comments after a closed-door  Security Council meeting where the U.S., Britain and France debated the ramifications  of Iranian arms transfers to Russia.

“All this is nonsense. I would like to stress that the UAVs used by the Russian army in Ukraine are manufactured in Russia. So those are all baseless allegations. You can see the labels “Geran”- which means ‘geranium’, the flower, in Russian, – on the outer shell of these UAVs. As stated by Iranian officials, and they circulated their position in the Council today, no arms transfers in violation of resolution 2231 have been ever conducted by Iran. No drones were supplied by Iran to Russia for the use in the conflict in Ukraine.”

-Dmitry Polyanskiy, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN

(Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  ©Diplomatic Times) Dmitry Polyanskiy, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, briefs reporters at UN world headquarters in New York)

Pentagon Spokesperson Accuses Russia of “Lying” About Iranian Drones

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder conducts a press briefing in the Pentagon Press Briefing room at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Sept. 6, 2022.  (DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Kubitza)

“…we know that these drones are from Iran. And, you know, as you as you look at some of the public — public comments that have come from Iran, I think, as evidenced by the drones themselves, as evidenced by the fact that they continue to export terror, as I mentioned, not only in the Middle East region, but in Ukraine.  …it’s obvious that they’re lying. And — and so again, the (defense) secretary has spoken recently to the Ukrainian minister of defense. He’s spoken to our partners and our allies about what it is that we can continue to do to support Ukraine, in areas like air defense; we’ll continue to have those conversations not only on air defense, but what other capabilities that Ukrainian forces need in the days ahead. But again, it’s just indicative of the kinds of rhetoric that you hear coming from Iran, and from Russia, trying to say that these are not Iranian drones when they clearly are. “

-Brigadier General Pat Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary