Instructors from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are training Russian forces in Belarus and coordinating the launches of Iranian-made drones, according to the Ukrainian National Resistance Center.
A group of Iranian instructors, officers of the IRGC, who are reportedly under the protection of the Russian National Guard and FSB officers, have been spotted in the village of Mykulichi, in the Gomel region.
According to information obtained by the Ukrainian National Resistance Center from Belarusian partisans, these instructors coordinated Shahed-136 drone strikes on infrastructure facilities in Kyiv, as well as on northern and western regions of Ukraine.
According to the local resistance group, the Russians have taken complete control of airfields in Baranovichi and Lida. The Russian military continues to use the bases to launch strikes on the territory of Ukraine.
10 Iranians killed in Ukrainian strikes
Ten Iranians, training Russian soldiers, were reportedly killed in Ukrainian strikes over the past week, a Ukrainian official told KAN news on Friday.
The report comes as American and Ukrainian officials warned that Iranians are training Russians to use Iranian drones in Crimea.
The Ukrainian National Resistance Center claimed on Wednesday that Iranian instructors were overseeing the Russian launching of kamikaze drones from within annexed Ukrainian territory.
"The Russians took Iranian instructors to the territory of the temporarily occupied Kherson Region and Crimea to launch Shahed-136 kamikaze drones," the government body alleged, citing Ukrainian underground resistance.
"They teach the Russians how to use kamikaze drones, and directly monitor the launch of drones on Ukrainian civilian targets, including strikes on Mykolaiv and Odesa."
"They teach the Russians how to use kamikaze drones, and directly monitor the launch of drones on Ukrainian civilian targets, including strikes on Mykolaiv and Odesa."
The Ukrainian National Resistance Center
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig.-Gen. Pat Ryder stated on Thursday that "Iranians have been on the ground in Ukraine to assist Russia with the drone operations there."