Ukraine says it has carried out long-range strikes against routes allegedly used to move Russian military equipment linked to Iran, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Moscow of providing satellite intelligence to Tehran for attacks on US facilities in the Middle East.
The claims add a new international dimension to the conflict between Iran and the United States, linking the Middle East crisis more closely to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy said Russian satellites had been monitoring Gulf states and US military installations in the region since the beginning of July. He claimed that the information was then passed to Iran.
According to the Ukrainian president, there was a “clear correlation” between Russian satellite imagery collected before Iranian attacks and images taken afterwards to assess the damage.
Zelenskyy said four air bases, including two in Bahrain, one in Jordan and one in Kuwait, had been within the observation range of Russian satellites on 19 and 20 July.
He warned that Russia’s alleged involvement should not be ignored and called for increased pressure on Moscow.
Ukraine also said on Saturday that it had launched long-range attacks against vessels in the Caspian Sea that Kyiv claimed were being used to transport military cargo between Russia and Iran.
Iran said one of the vessels struck was a commercial ship belonging to Iran and that one sailor was killed while others were injured.
Tehran summoned Ukraine’s acting chargé d’affaires to the Foreign Ministry to protest against the attack. Iranian officials said the country would defend its security and national interests and would not leave attacks on its citizens unanswered.
The incident has triggered calls from some Iranian social media users for a military response. Former Iranian lawmaker Nezameddin Mousavi said the alleged attack should lead Tehran to reconsider its self-imposed limit on the range of its ballistic missiles.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also raised the issue in a telephone call with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and called for action by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the wider international community.
The dispute has added to tensions surrounding Russia’s role in the Middle East conflict. US President Donald Trump said Russia and China would not provide weapons to Iran, claiming that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin had assured him of this position.
Trump warned that supplying weapons to Iran would be against the interests of both countries.
His comments conflict with Zelenskyy’s allegations that Russia is assisting Iran with satellite intelligence. Moscow and Beijing have not publicly responded to the Ukrainian president’s claims.
The latest developments show how the confrontation between Washington and Tehran is increasingly reaching beyond the Middle East, drawing in countries already involved in wider geopolitical conflicts.
