Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine should be stopped and accused the United States, which he called a "mafia-like regime", of creating the crisis.
Speaking in a televised speech, Iran's top political authority said that the roots of the conflict in Ukraine must be acknowledged.
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Ukrainian service members collect unexploded shells after a fighting with Russian raiding group in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv
(Photo: AFP)
Khamenei continued by blasting Washington and other Western nations on the situation in Ukraine, as talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal have reached a critical stage.
"The United States is a regime that lives on crises... In my view, Ukraine is a victim of the crises concocted by the U.S," said Khamenei.
"There are two lessons to be learnt here. States which depend on the support of the U.S. and Western powers need to know they cannot trust such countries. It is people that matter; if Ukrainians supported their government, the situation would have been different from the current crisis."
Khamenei's statement regarding the West's so-called failure of Ukraine comes amid reports and videos from Kharkiv - Ukraine's second-biggest city with a population of about 1.5 million - showing residential areas being shelled by the Russian military.
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A fragment of a destroyed Russian tank is seen on the roadside on the outskirts of Kharkiv
(Photo: AFP)
Authorities in Kharkiv said at least seven people had been killed and dozens injured. They warned that casualties could be far higher.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both added that the Russian military used widely banned thermo-bombs in its most recent attacks.