US sanctions Iranian officials as West upgrades Ukrainian defenses
Joel Gehrke
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled new sanctions on seven people involved in Iran’s aerospace and aviation sector as Western powers move to reinforce Ukraine’s ability to down the drones that Russia has acquired from Tehran.
“Iran has now become Russia’s top military backer,” Blinken said Friday. “Iran must cease its support for Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to disrupt and delay these transfers and impose costs on actors engaged in this activity.”
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Those new sanctions add a punitive layer to recent Western efforts to upgrade Ukraine’s air defense systems in the face of Russia’s sustained bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The Kremlin’s attempt to create a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine in response to a series of Ukrainian battlefield successes spurred President Joe Biden to authorize the transfer of a Patriot missile defense system, one of the most advanced air defense systems in the U.S. arsenal.
“Strengthening our air defenses is a direct de-escalation effort here and now,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday. “The fewer opportunities Russia has to terrorize peaceful cities, the less the overall potential of Russian aggression will be.”
Biden’s decision to green-light a Patriot transfer set the stage for a broader upgrade of Western equipment to Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who decided last month to send a German-owned Patriot to Poland but declined Warsaw’s proposal to place the battery in western Ukraine, opted to follow Biden’s lead.
“In light of Russia’s ongoing missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, President Biden and Chancellor Scholz affirmed their intention to further support Ukraine’s urgent requirement for air defense capabilities,” the two leaders said Thursday in a joint statement. “Germany will join the United States in supplying an additional Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine.”
That statement also heralded the delivery of U.S. and German infantry fighting vehicles, one day after French President Emmanuel Macron’s team announced that Paris would send wheeled “light tanks” to Ukraine.
“So, as of now, for Ukraine, there is more air defense, more armored vehicles, for the first time — Western tanks, more guns and rounds, more energy and political opportunities,” Zelensky said. “And all this means more protection for Ukrainians and all Europeans from any manifestations of Russian terror.”
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Putin has not been able to acquire a comparable influx of military equipment from China, which has refused to provide military aid to the invasion despite Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s pledge of a “no-limits” partnership with Moscow just days before Putin launched the campaign to overthrow the Ukrainian government.
“The Kremlin’s reliance on suppliers of last resort like Iran shows their desperation in the face of brave Ukrainian resistance and the success of our global coalition in disrupting Russian military supply chains and denying them the inputs they need to replace weapons lost on the battlefield,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday. “The United States will act swiftly against individuals and entities supporting Iran’s UAV and ballistic missile programs and will stand resolutely in support of the people of Ukraine.”