A Ukrainian strike last weekend on an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea has underscored the links between the wars that the two countries are fighting, raising tensions between them as well as the risk of more direct confrontation.
Ukraine said the ship was carrying military equipment between Iran and Russia. Iranian officials said it was a commercial vessel, and it accused Ukraine of killing a sailor in the attack.
Iranian officials threatened retaliation in a series of statements and comments to the news media. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, snapped back, telling Iran it had “no standing to pretend to be a victim” given its military support for Russia in its war with Ukraine.
Here’s a look at how Iran and Ukraine became adversaries through two separate wars — and why their indirect conflict now risks becoming a direct one.
Russia hit Ukraine with Iranian drones.
Iran and Russia have had a close military relationship for decades. The most visible recent example of this is the long-range attack drones that Tehran has supplied to Moscow.
Russia launched swarms of the drones across Ukraine within months of its 2022 invasion, to deadly effect. The United States has accused Iran of supplying Russia with short-range ballistic missiles as well. And Ukraine said Iran had sent trainers to help the Russian military use drone systems, a claim that Iran denied.
The widespread use of drones, particularly the relatively cheap types provided by Iran, transformed the war in Ukraine and, more broadly, changed how military planners assess the needs of modern armies. It also forced Ukraine to develop counter-drone technologies that analysts say now rival conventional air defense systems.
Ukraine helped defend Gulf states against Iran.
Four years after Russian unleashed those Iranian drones against Ukraine, Kyiv has now brought its hard-earned expertise in countering them to the Middle East.
After the United States and Israel began their war with Iran in late February, the Iranian military launched waves of drones at U.S. military targets in Gulf countries. Ukraine saw that as an opening to showcase and export its low-cost anti-drone systems.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in March that more than 200 Ukrainian military experts had been sent to the Middle East to help defend allies against Iranian drones. “We do not want this terror of the Iranian regime against its neighbors to succeed,” he said during a speech in Britain’s Parliament.
Ukraine has also sealed defense deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates focused on countering Iranian missile and drone threats.
Are the wars converging?
Ukraine has increasingly portrayed its war with Russia and the war in the Middle East as intertwined, saying Iran and Russia were aiding each other in their respective conflicts.
On Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine’s intelligence services had gathered evidence that Russia was providing Iran with satellite surveillance of Gulf states and U.S. military bases in the region, helping Tehran plan and carry out attacks. He said Ukraine would share the intelligence with its Western allies.
On the same day, Ukraine struck the Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea, accusing it of transporting military cargo between Iran and Russia, without specifying in which direction — the clearest suggestion yet that Kyiv’s long-running proxy conflict with Tehran could evolve into a more direct confrontation.
Mr. Zelensky may also use the attack to try to persuade President Trump that Ukraine and the United States share the same enemy and to advocate for closer military ties. The Ukrainian leader will meet with Mr. Trump on Tuesday afternoon; he has said his top priority was securing more air defense capabilities.
In a post on X, Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, tied the attack on the ship directly to the Middle East conflict, calling the strike “a blatant U.N. Charter violation” and claiming it had been “done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.”
Mr. Araghchi added that he had spoken with both the European Union’s top diplomat and Russia’s foreign minister to make clear that the attack “CANNOT GO UNANSWERED.”
Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting.
