Ukraine’s disinformation center says there is no official data on planned Iranian missile strike
There is currently no official information that Iran intends to strike Ukraine, Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, said on social media.
A day earlier, a number of Telegram channels and online public pages had circulated unverified claims that Tehran was allegedly planning to hit Ukraine with ballistic missiles within the next two days.
Those posts said Iran could use Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missiles, which are reported to have a range of up to 4,000 kilometers.
Relations between Ukraine and Iran have worsened after Tehran accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea. According to those claims, one sailor was killed and another was injured.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that drone strikes were carried out in the Caspian Sea overnight into July 25. He said, however, that the targets were vessels “involved in transporting military cargo with Iran, as well as a military ship.”
Iran claimed it had “never interfered in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict” and urged the U.N. Security Council to note that “the Ukrainian regime not only committed an internationally wrongful act, but also sought to expand the scale of the war.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the Ukrainian president “a freeloader” who attacked an Iranian merchant vessel “at Israel's behest to drag Europe into its war.” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry responded by calling the accusations groundless and reminding Tehran of its complicity in the war against Ukraine.
Recently, Zelenskyy also warned that Ukrainian intelligence had recorded new information about Russian assistance to the Iranian regime. In particular, he said Russia has been actively taking satellite images since early July of Persian Gulf countries and U.S. military facilities located there.
According to Zelenskyy, on July 19 and 20 alone, Russian satellites focused on four air bases — two in Bahrain and one each in Jordan and Kuwait.
He said such images later end up in Iranian hands and that “there is a clear correlation” between Russian imaging of facilities and subsequent Iranian strikes.