Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the Iranian regime and Vladimir Putin’s Russia are connected in hate amid reports that Putin is harbouring the injured Ayatollah in Moscow.
The Ukrainian president highlighted co-operation between Tehran and Moscow on Shahed kamikaze drones which had targeted Ukraine and countries across the Gulf.
Speaking in a Westminster committee room, Mr Zelensky said: ‘The regimes in Russia and Iran are brothers in hatred, and that’s the reason they’re brothers in weapons.
‘And we would like regimes built on hatred, to never, never win in anything. And we would like no such regime to threaten Europe or our partners.’
It comes after reports that Iran’s latest Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been secretly flown to Moscow for life-saving surgery after he was severely injured in an Israeli airstrike.
Khamenei was severely injured within the attack that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the outbreak of the Iran War.
Citing a ‘high-ranking source near the brand new Iranian supreme leader, Kuwaiti paper Al-Jarida claimed that Vladimir Putin personally offered Khamenei medical treatment within the Russian capital during a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday.
When asked about Al-Jarida’s claims during a press briefing in Moscow, a spokesperson said that the Kremlin did ‘not comment in any way on such reports’.
On Tuesday, Zelensky told MPs that his drone squads were far cheaper to counter Iranian or Russian strikes.
He said: ‘Together Europe is a world force – one which the world cannot do without and that no-one can stand against. We must grow this strength, and we must direct it, and we are able to. We must act now, in order that future generations can say ‘these leaders acted when it mattered’.
‘Work with us as closely as possible in order that neither Kyiv, nor London, can have to cover under drone nets or live under concrete and not using a secure sky.’
‘There was no real peace while this regime has been in Iran,’ Zelensky says.
‘We’re entering a time when such regimes are gaining latest ways to kill, cheaply, over long distances, using AI, and just because they wish to destroy you and may force their very own people to work for war.
‘One Iranian Shahed missile costs $150,000. To shoot it down pilots sometimes use missiles some costing as much as $4m.’
But he says the Ukrainian approach is ‘far most cost effective’. With smaller missiles costing lower than $10,000 dollars.
Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the UK for its support over the a ‘difficult winter’
The Ukrainian president said he would update Sir Keir on battlefield developments and energy security, saying: ‘In fact, we are able to’t sleep, we must move quickly.’
‘Also to not ignore our diplomatic efforts and negotiations and where we’re with the Americans and with the Russians.’
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