European Union members have agreed on new punitive measures against Iran over its supply of suicide drones to Russia, the Czech presidency of the EU said on October 20.
"EU ambassadors agreed on measures against entities supplying Iranian drones that hit Ukraine," the Czech EU presidency said in a tweet.
"EU states decided to freeze the assets of three individuals and one entity responsible for drone deliveries (and) is also prepared to extend sanctions to four more Iranian entities that already featured in a previous sanctions list."
The sanctions are expected to enter into force later on October 20 after their publication in the EU Official Journal, a legal register for EU regulations.
Russian forces have launched successive waves of attacks since October 10 on Ukrainian civilian and infrastructure targets using suspected Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during his evening address on October 19 that 233 Iranian Shahed drones have been destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses over the past 10 days.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said on October 20 that Russia has carried out about 300 strikes on Ukraine's energy system over the past 10 days.
Both Moscow and Tehran deny an arms deal relating to the drones.
Ukraine's Western allies have said they will provide Kyiv with advanced air-defense systems to counter the Russian strikes.
In a briefing on October 20, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova repeated Moscow's aggressive criticism of the West for shipping billions of dollars worth of advanced arms to Ukraine to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia's eight-month military invasion.
Zakharova said the arms deliveries made the EU party to the conflict in Ukraine and that countries pumping Ukraine with weapons were "sponsors of terrorism," RFE/RL reports.
