Ukrainian Envoy Summoned Over Drone Attack Remarks

Date: 30 January 2023 - 21:54

News ID: ۱۱۱۹۶۳

TEHRAN – The Iranian
foreign ministry on Monday summoned the Ukrainian charge d’affaires in the country over comments made by a top presidential adviser, who appeared to link a recent drone attack in central Iran to the war in Ukraine.
The envoy was called to provide explanations over a Twitter post by Mykhailo Podolyak a day earlier, according to Nournews, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“Explosive night in Iran – drone & missile production, oil refineries,” Podolyak, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had written on Sunday, adding Ukraine “did warn you”.
Other Ukrainian officials have yet to publicly expand on his comments.
The tweet came shortly after a military factory in Isfahan came under attack from what officials said were three quadcopters armed with explosives.
The defense ministry running the site said the attack was thwarted, with the facility suffering only minor damage to its roof. Iranian media carried footage that showed the remains of the drones, with one seemingly caught in a mesh net installed on top of the plant as a defense measure.
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday cited unnamed United States officials and people familiar with the strike as saying the occupying regime of Israel was behind the drone attack. The Zionist regime has not officially commented.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday criticized the drone attack as “cowardly”, saying it was aimed at jeopardizing security of the country.
Iran has so far not officially blamed the occupying regime of Israel for the attack, but it has previously been a target of many suspected Israeli strikes. The Zionist regime has threatened large-scale strikes as efforts to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with the Europeans remain deadlocked.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Western countries have baseless accused Iran of supplying Russia with attack drones that have allegedly been used in the war in Ukraine, and they have imposed several rounds of sanctions on it. Iran has acknowledged supplying a “limited” number of drones to Russia but said this was before the start of the war in February last year.