“The U.S. war with Iran is undermining support for Ukraine,” Zelensky said

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concern that the prolonged U.S.-Israeli war against Iran could further undermine and weaken American support for Kyiv.

He said this during his visit to Istanbul in an interview with the Associated Press, published on Sunday, April 5.

“We have to admit that today we are not a priority [for the United States]. That is why I am afraid that a prolonged war [in Iran] will bring us less support,” AP quoted Zelensky as saying.

The Ukrainian president noted that Kyiv had not been receiving a sufficient number of Patriot air defense systems and missiles for them from the outset, despite needing them to repel Russian military aggression. If the war in Iran does not end soon, then, in Zelensky’s view, the aid package for Ukraine “will become smaller and smaller every day.”

In the interview, Zelensky also said that after the easing of U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, Moscow is deriving significant economic benefit from the war in the Middle East.

“Russia is getting additional money from this, so yes, they are benefiting,” he emphasized.

Until April 11, the United States exempted from sanctions the sale of Russian oil and petroleum products that had been loaded onto vessels by March 12. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump made this decision “to ensure stability in global energy markets and keep prices low” against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. At the same time, on March 11, the G7 countries announced that they had agreed not to lift sanctions on Russian oil during the war with Iran.

On April 1, Donald Trump threatened to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine unless Europe helped reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the Financial Times reported, citing three informed sources. According to them, the White House chief threatened to suspend the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, under which European countries buy weapons from the United States for transfer to Kyiv. As The Washington Post had previously reported, the Pentagon is considering redirecting important military equipment intended for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the war with Iran.

Since February 28, the United States and Israel have been carrying out airstrikes against Iran, in which Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of senior officials and security figures were reportedly killed. Iran, in response, has been attacking neighboring states in the Persian Gulf region using missiles and drones. According to Tehran, the targets of these attacks are American military bases in the region.