theguardian.com
Ukraine war briefing: Iran accuses Kyiv of deadly attack on Iranian vessel in Caspian Sea
Zelenskyy says Iran is using Russian satellite images to help direct strikes in Middle East. What we know on day 1,614
Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned what it called a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying it killed one sailor and injured another. Tehran called the apparent attack an act of aggression and said it would defend its national interests and security. Ukraine’s diplomatic representative to Iran was summoned, Iranian state media reported. Throughout the war in Ukraine, Kyiv has had to counter Iranian-designed drones deployed by Moscow, and it has offered its drone interception expertise to countries in the Middle East that have been attacked by Iran.
Iran and Russia are two of the five countries that border the Caspian Sea and Russia maintains a powerful naval force there, making the inland body of water a platform for long‑range power projection, and a vital strategic bridge to Iran. Iran’s denunciation of the Ukraine attack on the ship coincided with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s comments that Russia was passing its satellite observations in the Middle East to Iran to enable it to direct strikes in the region. Zelenskyy on Saturday said on X that Ukraine had “achieved very strong results with long‑range strikes in the Caspian Sea – including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran”.
Zelenskyy also said Russia wanted to bring in 30,000 North Korean troops to take part in its more than four-year-old conflict with Russia, and was already preparing to receive them. Under a mutual defence pact, North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk Region in 2024 to help Moscow beat back a major incursion into the region by Ukrainian forces. “Preparations have been under way in Russia’s Voronezh region since June to receive [North Korean troops],” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, adding that the communist dictatorship was preparing to supply Russia with new launchers for ballistic missiles.
Twelve people were killed, including five children, in an drone attack on a holiday camp in a Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-installed local authorities said on Saturday, accusing Ukraine of deliberately attacking civilians. Kyiv did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv came under attack from Russian forces early on Sunday, with falling debris triggering fires in at least three districts, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ukraine’s air force said Russian forces had targeted the capital with ballistic missiles. But an air alert was lifted after about 50 minutes and the air force rescinded its warning of missile deployment. Klitschko said one blaze had broken out on the seventh and eighth floors of a multi-storey apartment block in a central district. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said on Saturday a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine might be reached if both sides froze the conflict and resumed negotiations. Tokayev made the remarks while meeting Vladimir Putin at a Russia-Kazakhstan forum in the Siberian city of Omsk. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, quoted by the state TASS news agency, said Putin outlined to Tokayev in detail the state of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Continue reading...
