Iran should be punished for helping Russia: Ukraine's Zelensky

Russia-Ukraine War: “If it was not for the Iranian supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would be closer to peace now,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Iran must be punished for what he called its “complicity in Russian terror” and accused the regime in Tehran of helping to prolong the war and exacerbate its impact on food and energy supplies.

Russia-Ukraine War: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. (AFP)

“If it was not for the Iranian supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would be closer to peace now,” Zelensky said Sunday evening in his daily address. Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Zelensky on a telephone call that she will this week propose a financial aid package of as much as €18 billion ($17.9 billion) to help cover Ukraine’s needs into next year.

Kyiv and six other regions in northern and central Ukraine are meanwhile facing additional emergency blackouts on Monday due to the growing power shortage following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian forces repelled attacks over the past day near eight settlements in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook. The country’s southern operational command said that three Russian munitions depots and a UAV control station were destroyed. Russian troops shelled the Nikopol district in the Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, local authorities said on Telegram.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update that “Russia’s continued lack of air superiority is likely exacerbated by poor training, loss of experienced crews, and heightened risks of conducting close air support” and that “this is unlikely to change in the next few months.”