Zelensky: “Iranians and North Koreans have already attacked us”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Iran is effectively already waging war against Ukraine — by supplying Russia with Shahed drones, the technology to produce them, and other weapons.

He made the remarks in an interview with a Sky News journalist.

Commenting on Tehran’s threats in connection with the incident in the Caspian Sea, Zelensky stressed that the question of a possible Iranian attack on Ukraine was, in his view, already settled.

“From the first year of the war, Iran provided Russia with a new base, new technologies — those were the Shahed drones. They supplied thousands of these drones in the first year of the war. And then they provided licenses. What did they do? Did they attack us? I think they did,” the president said.

At the same time, Zelensky called for preventing the opening of a new front, acknowledging that both Iran and North Korea are already effectively participating in the war.

“We must be careful. We must do everything to avoid opening a new front under any circumstances. But we must be honest: the Iranians and the North Koreans have already attacked us,” Zelensky said.

The president added that he hopes Iran will not intensify its attacks, but that “we need to be prepared for anything.” Ukraine should not trust Tehran, since it had supplied weapons to Russia “at the very beginning, without any escalation on our part.”

The current tensions were triggered by Iran’s accusation that Ukraine attacked an Iranian merchant vessel in the Caspian Sea. According to the Iranian side, one sailor was killed and another was wounded in the explosion. Tehran described the incident as “an act of aggression” and declared its intention to defend its national interests and security. Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in telephone conversations with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, stated that the Ukrainian attack on the Iranian merchant vessel “cannot go unanswered.”