Ukraine killed Iranian military officers for teaching Russian troops suicidal drone operation

Ukraine said it had murdered Iranian military officers who educated Russian troops on how to run ‘suicidal drones’ on the Crimean Peninsula. As Ukraine has warned that it will murder additional Iranian troops supporting Russia in its territory, it remains to be seen whether the Ukraine-Russia war will also spread to Iran.

“We have no choice but to kill people who participate in acts of cooperation with terrorists and destruction of our country,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, told an interview with the UK daily Guardian. “If they collaborate with terrorists and participate in destroying our nation, we must kill them. Iranians who intervene in the war will be additional targets.” He stopped short of specifying how many Iranian officers Ukraine has killed, but the Jerusalem Post in Israel reported on October 21 that 10 Iranian drone training officers had been murdered.

Russian troops have been extensively using the Iranian suicidal drone ‘Shahed 136’ since last month. They have damaged Ukraine’s infrastructure and killed civilians.

Meanwhile, the European Union decided to implement from December 5 a price cap on Russian crude oil to control the import of Russian crude the in a bid to counter Moscow’s ‘weaponization of energy’ and discussed a measure to restrict the price of natural gas to stabilize its price on Thursday, but it failed to reach an agreement. However, according to Russia’s official Tass news agency, EU member states have decided to jointly purchase 15 percent of natural gas to be stored in their storages with non-Russian sources.


Eun-A Cho achim@donga.com