US sanctions Chinese network that sold drone components to Iran, says UAVs were used by Russia in Ukraine

The US Treasury Department on Thursday announced new sanctions on a China-based network that sells aerospace components to Iran for the manufacture of drones.

The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company makes the Shaheed-136 drones and exports them to Russia, which has increasingly used them in recent months to bomb Ukraine.

“Iran is directly involved in Ukrainian civilian casualties as a result of Russia’s use of Iranian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in Ukraine,” Brian Nelson, Undersecretary of the Treasury Department’s Counterterrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement Thursday. “The United States will continue to target the global Iranian procurement network that supplies Russia with lethal UAVs for use in its illegal war in Ukraine.”

Iranian drones have been used by Russia to attack Ukrainian civilian structures and critical infrastructure. (Reuters/Roman Petushkov/File)

Five Chinese companies and one individual were sanctioned for shipping thousands of aerospace components to Iran.

Iranian drones have been used by Russia to attack Ukrainian civilian structures and critical infrastructure.

US officials are drawing attention to Russia’s use of Iranian equipment in its war on Ukraine. (Directorate of Strategic Communications of the Ukrainian Army via AP/File)

US imposes new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war, increases tariffs

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned earlier this year that Iran could “potentially contribute to wider war crimes” by supplying drones to Russia to bomb Ukraine.

“Their weapons are being used in Ukraine to kill civilians and to plunge cities into cold and darkness,” Sullivan said in January.

A police officer inspects parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle believed by Ukrainian authorities to be an Iranian-made suicide drone in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on October 6, 2022. (Reuters / Vyacheslav Madievsky)

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US officials have also accused Iran of sending personnel to Crimea to train Russian soldiers to operate drones.

“They can lie to the world, but they certainly can’t hide the facts, and the fact remains: Tehran is now connected directly to the ground,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last fall.

Greg Norman of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.