Russian troops carried out serious strikes on the Ukrainian targets in the Southenr region, on September 23, Ukrainian officials said.
A number of Iranian-made Shahed-136 “kamikaze” unmanned aerial vehicles were used to carry out the strikes on Ukrainian targets in Odesa and Dnipro regions
Ukraine said on Friday it would downgrade diplomatic ties with Iran over Tehran’s decision to supply Russian forces with drones, a move President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called “a collaboration with evil”.
Zelenskiy said a total of eight Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles had been shot down so far in the conflict.
“Today the Russian army used Iranian drones for its strikes. … The world will know about every instance of collaboration with evil, and it will have corresponding consequences,” Zelenskiy said in a late night video address.
Oleg Nikolenko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, said in a tweet on Saturday that in response to the supply of weapons to Russia, “we announced the revocation of accreditation of the Iranian Ambassador in Kyiv, and a significant drawdown of diplomatic personnel at the Iranian embassy”.
Military authorities in southern Ukraine said in a statement they had shot down four Shahed-136 “kamikaze” unmanned aerial vehicles over the sea near the port of Odesa on Friday.
Iran-supplied Shahed-136 is a loitering or suicide drone fully developed and manufactured by the Iranian defense industry. It was unveiled in December 2021 during a video report of Iranian TV.
The Shahed-136, also know as Heran 2, has a length of 3.5 m, a wingspan of 2.5 m, and a weight of 200 kg. The drone is equipped with an explosive warhead and can fly at a range of up to 2,500 km at a maximum speed of 185 km/h.