Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that the Iranian regime and Vladimir Putin’s Russia are connected in hate amid reports that Putin is harbouring the injured Ayatollah in Moscow.

The Ukrainian president highlighted co-operation between Tehran and Moscow on Shahed kamikaze drones which had targeted Ukraine and countries across the Gulf.

Speaking in a Westminster committee room, Mr Zelensky said: ‘The regimes in Russia and Iran are brothers in hatred, and that is why they are brothers in weapons.

‘And we want regimes built on hatred, to never, never win in anything. And we want no such regime to threaten Europe or our partners.’

It comes after reports that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been secretly flown to Moscow for life-saving surgery after he was severely injured in an Israeli airstrike.

Khamenei was severely injured in the attack that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the outbreak of the Iran War.

Citing a ‘high-ranking source close to the new Iranian supreme leader, Kuwaiti paper Al-Jarida claimed that Vladimir Putin personally offered Khamenei medical treatment in the Russian capital during a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday.

When asked about Al-Jarida’s claims during a press briefing in Moscow, a spokesperson said that the Kremlin did ‘not comment in any way on such reports’.

On Tuesday, Zelensky told MPs that his drone squads were far cheaper to counter Iranian or Russian strikes.

He said: ‘Together Europe is a global force – one that the world cannot do without and that no-one can stand against. We must grow this strength, and we must direct it, and we can. We must act now, so that future generations can say ‘these leaders acted when it mattered’.

‘Work with us as closely as possible so that neither Kyiv, nor London, will have to hide under drone nets or live under concrete without a safe sky.’

‘There has been no real peace while this regime has been in Iran,’ Zelensky says.

‘We are entering a time when such regimes are gaining new ways to kill, cheaply, over long distances, using AI, and simply because they want to destroy you and can force their own people to work for war.

‘One Iranian Shahed missile costs $150,000. To shoot it down pilots sometimes use missiles some costing up to $4m.’

But he says the Ukrainian approach is ‘far most cost effective’. With smaller missiles costing less than $10,000 dollars.

Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the UK for its support over the a ‘difficult winter’

The Ukrainian president said he would update Sir Keir on battlefield developments and energy security, saying: ‘Of course, we can’t sleep, we must move quickly.’

‘Also not to forget about our diplomatic efforts and negotiations and where we are with the Americans and with the Russians.’

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