Iran has sent ballistic missiles to Russia in a 'dramatic escalation' of the war, Blinken says
International Editor Emma Murphy has the latest as Blinken says Iran has sent ballistic missiles to Russia
Russia has received shipments of ballistic missiles from Iran, and will likely use them "within weeks" in Ukraine, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
Speaking alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy during a visit to London, Mr Blinken said they would take measures to punish all involved, and that sanctions would be announced later on Tuesday.
"This development, and the growing co-operation between Russia and Iran, threatens European security," he said.
"It demonstrates that Iran's destabilising influence reaches far beyond the Middle East."
He said that the US had been aware for some time of the threat of Iran's provision of missiles to Russia.
"We've warned Tehran privately, we've warned Tehran publicly, that taking this step would constitute a dramatic escalation," Mr Blinken said.
He told the news conference that dozens of Russian soldiers had been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles.
"Russia has an array of its own ballistic missiles, but the supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line.
Mr Lammy echoed his US counterpart's sentiments, calling the shipment "a significant and dangerous escalation."
"We have been clear in that any transfer of ballistic missiles by Iran would face a significant response. Today, alongside our international partners, we are calling out this behaviour and its attempts to undermine global security," he said in a statement.
"Iran must stop supporting Putin's unprovoked, premeditated and barbaric attack against a sovereign democratic state. The UK will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes."
Together with France and Germany, the UK also issued a joint statement condemning Iran's actions.
This comes after Mr Lammy and Mr Blinken said they would make a joint visit to Ukraine later this week to show support for Kyiv.
On their joint mission they will listen to Kyiv’s calls for permission to use Western long-range weapons to strike Russian territory, with US President Joe Biden and Sir Keir Starmer set to discuss the issue in Washington on Friday.
Mr Lammy hailed the Kyiv trip as “the first of its kind in a decade”, at a press conference alongside his US counterpart on Tuesday.
The accusations about Iranian missiles could embolden President Zelenskyy to further ramp up pressure on the US 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.
President Biden has allowed Ukraine to fire US-provided missiles across the border into Russia in self defence, but has limited the distance over concerns about further escalating the conflict.
But Ukraine has still used its own weapons to reach deeper Russian targets.
On Monday night, officials said over 140 Ukrainian drones targeted multiple Russian regions overnight, including in Moscow.
It is one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian soil since the war began. One person was killed in the town of Ramenskoye, just outside Moscow. Eight others were injured.
Asked whether the US would allow weapons it supplied to Ukraine to strike targets in Russia, Mr Blinken said all use of weapons needed to be allied to a strategy.
He said a goal of the visit was to "hear directly" about "exactly how the Ukrainians see their needs in the moment, toward what objectives, and what we can do to support those needs."
"All I can tell you is we will be listening intently to our Ukrainian partners, we will both be reporting back to the Prime Minister, to President Biden in the coming days and I fully anticipate this is something they will take up when they meet on Friday," he said.
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