Kyiv's Apology Stopped Iranian Strikes, Official Claims
Iran’s supreme leader adviser Mohsen Rezaei said the country had readied strikes against three Ukrainian sites after Kyiv attacked a military cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea on July 25. Tehran, he said, scrapped the strikes after Kyiv issued what he described as an apology. Rezaei did not name the targets or offer evidence to support his claim.
The July 25 incident involved a vessel transporting military goods between Russia and Iran. Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed the ship was operating under sanctions, which limited Iran’s legal ability to transfer supplies to Russia for the war in Ukraine. Iran immediately condemned the strike as an act of aggression and warned the move would not go unanswered. Iran's Foreign Ministry later claimed the strike targeted a commercial vessel, killing one sailor and injuring another.
Ukraine claimed the strike was unintentional and aimed at a target linked to Russian aggression. Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha spoke with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on July 28. Sybiha said he emphasized that Ukraine’s actions were always defensive and not targeted at civilians or civilian infrastructure. Araghchi reportedly said Kyiv denied targeting Iran and did not want to escalate tensions.
Relations between the two nations remain tense. Since early 2022, Iran has supplied Russia with Shahed drones and later allowed Moscow to produce them under license. That has positioned Iran as a critical military partner for Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has sent its military experts to Gulf states in recent months to help them defend against Iranian drone attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said on July 25 that Moscow had been providing Tehran with satellite imagery of U.S. and Gulf military installations throughout the U.S. war against Iran.