Tehran may want to talk with Ukraine about claims that it’s arming Russia with deadly “kamazaki” drones, but President Voldomyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday he doesn’t trust the words of Iran’s leaders.
The Ukrainian president sat down with both CBC News and CTV News for a roundtable interview at the presidential palace in Kyiv. Zelenskyy told Canadian reporters he doesn’t believe Iran’s public denials.
“They’re killing our people,” Zelenskyy said. “So what trust can we talk about?
“Iran supplied [Russia] with drones, [they] supply murders, murders of Ukrainians. This is their agreement. A financial agreement. Blood money for Iran.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani repeated Tehran’s denials in a media statement late Tuesday and — for the first time — expressed a readiness to engage in “dialogue and negotiation with Ukraine to clear these allegations.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister has proposed to Zelenskyy that he cut diplomatic ties with Iran following a wave of drone attacks across the country which killed several people and damaged infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian government has no doubts that Iranian Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones were behind the attacks. He said allied nations have separately provided intelligence that backs up his government’s position. He did not address reports that suggest Iranians are training Russians in the use of the drones in Crimea.
“They cannot be trusted,” Zelenskky said, “And I emphasize, it is not people. They are also brainwashed inside the country, in the same way Russia does it. They tell their people, ‘We did not sell anything,’ but all this is a lie, [a] clear lie. They kill our people.”
The Ukrainian president also called on the international community to demand that Russian troops and private security contractors leave the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, which has been occupied for several months. If they don’t, he said, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “should break all their relations with Russia.”
The IAEA’s director general Rafael Mariano Grossi doubled down in recent days on the agency’s urgent call for the establishment of a safety zone around the plant.
Zelenskyy also expressed gratitude during the interview for Canada’s support, saying he appreciates the fact that he never has to stand in line to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He sidestepped a question about his government’s plea for more armoured vehicles beyond what Canada already has promised and delivered.
Zelenskyy chose instead to praise the Canadian government’s swift delivery of monetary aid, which has helped to keep the Ukrainian economy afloat.
