The United States and Britain formally accused Iran on Tuesday of supplying short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to use against Ukraine, announcing new sanctions on Moscow and Tehran before a joint visit to Kyiv by their top diplomats.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy during a visit to London, said Iran had ignored warnings that the transfer of such weapons would be a profound escalation of the conflict.
He said dozens of Russian military personnel had been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles (120 kilometers).
"Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukrainians," Blinken said. "The supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line."
The West's allegations about the missile transfers come as the Kremlin is trying to repel Ukraine's surprise offensive , which has claimed hundreds of square miles of territory in Russia's Kursk region. The accusations could embolden Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to further ramp up pressure on the U.S. and other allies to allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied missiles to strike deep inside Russia and hit sites from which Moscow launches aerial attacks.
