U.S. has evidence of Iranian troops "on the ground" in Crimea

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned earlier this week that Russian attacks had already destroyed 30% of the country's power stations.
• Ukraine's energy system has suffered more attacks since the Russian escalation ten days ago than in the previous eight months of the war, the country's electric utility, Ukrenergo, wrote in a Telegram post Wednesday.

What they're saying: “The information we have is that the Iranians have put trainers and tech support in Crimea, but it’s the Russians who are doing the piloting,” Kirby said, per AP.

• Kirby noted that the amount of Iranian personnel in Crimea was a "relatively small number."

• "We can confirm that Russian military personnel based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs and using them to conduct strikes" against Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a press briefing Thursday, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.
• "We assess that Iranian personnel — Iranian military personnel — were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations," he added.
• "Russia has received dozens of these UAVs so far and will likely continue to receive additional shipments in the future."