KYIV — Russia launched its third attack in 24 hours Tuesday night, sending 31 Iranian-made kamikaze drones into Ukraine, most of them aimed at Kyiv.
Ukrainian Air Defense Forces said they shot down 29 drones. However, there was still extensive damage caused. One person was killed and 13 injured in a fire at a residential building caused by falling debris from a drone, Kyiv’s military administration reported.
The latest attack came as Kyiv moved to sanction the Kremlin’s main supplier of drones — Iran.
On Monday, the Ukrainian parliament supported an initiative from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sanction Iran for 50 years.
“At a time when Russia is shelling Ukrainians almost every day and night with drones of Iranian production, this is the right step,” MP Olexiy Goncharenko said in a statement.
Zelenskyy asked the parliament to support the state security and defense council’s decision to sanction Iran on May 27. The Council’s decision will stop Iranian goods from transiting through Ukraine or using its airspace, as well as impose trade, financial and technology sanctions against Iran and its citizens.
Iran is one of the countries that benefit from a U.N.-brokered deal making it possible for Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea.
The decision came three days after Zelenskyy addressed the Iranian people in his evening statement, asking them to “stop the slide to the dark side of history” by supplying Moscow with drones.
He said Russia has used more than 1,000 Shahed drones against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. Ukraine shoots down most, but not all, of them, Zelenskyy added.
“When an Iranian drone kills a Ukrainian pregnant woman and her husband, how do you benefit from this, mothers and fathers in Iran?” Zelenskyy asked.
“You only get even more isolated from the world, unfortunately,” Zelenskyy added.
In response, the Iranian foreign ministry accused Zelenskyy of repeating anti-Iranian propaganda to get more weapons from the West, Reuters reported.