Iran has threatened Kyiv with retaliation following an attack by Ukrainian forces in the Caspian Sea that killed a sailor. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the attack on Saturday violated the United Nations Charter and would not go unanswered.
In a statement on social media, Araghchi accused Israel of inciting Ukraine to draw Europe into the war. He also shared these views in phone calls with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
According to a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry, the commercial vessel was hit by an explosion, killing one sailor and wounding many others. Tehran condemned the attack as a 'hostile and criminal act' and summoned Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in Tehran to the Foreign Ministry.
Ukraine, for its part, announced that the attacks targeted a Russian warship and vessels carrying Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea. The Iranian Foreign Ministry stressed that Tehran had 'never been involved in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.'
Ibrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, also warned Ukraine of retaliation in a statement on X. 'Every attack on Iran will have a cost,' Azizi said, adding that Ukraine would soon understand that 'Iran will not stand idly by.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a statement on X the same day, said they had achieved 'very powerful results' with long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea, hitting 'a warship as well as vessels used in Iran-involved military cargo shipments.' Zelenskyy accused Russia of providing military support to Iran, noting that since early July, Russia has been conducting active satellite surveillance of Gulf countries and U.S. military facilities there, and that the imagery later appeared in Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered condolences for the sailor who lost his life. He said that Araghchi had thanked local authorities in Russia's Astrakhan region, where the vessel began its voyage, for their assistance to the crew, and stressed that 'such adventures by the Kyiv regime must be stopped.' The Russian Foreign Ministry's statement also noted that Araghchi had informed Lavrov of ongoing diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying Moscow with thousands of Shahed drones, supporting airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. Ukraine also sent military personnel to Gulf countries to support the interception of Shahed drones, in solidarity with Middle Eastern nations targeted by Tehran after the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
