Iran Accuses Ukraine of Attacking Merchant Ship in Caspian Sea, One Dead

Iran has accused Ukraine of attacking one of its merchant ships in the Caspian Sea on Saturday, an incident that killed one sailor and wounded another. Tehran warned it would not let the incident go unanswered.

According to a report by the official IRNA news agency, Iran’s Foreign Ministry stated the attack caused the vessel to ‘explode, killing one sailor and injuring another’.

The accusation follows remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said Kyiv had conducted a long-range strike in the Caspian Sea against vessels involved in transporting military cargo involving Iran, underscoring the growing international dimensions of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Iran, however, insisted that the Islamic Republic ‘has never interfered in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine’.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service reported via Telegram that a drone strike had been carried out against ‘a cargo ship under international sanctions used to transport military cargo between Iran and Russia’.

According to Iranian state television, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian chargé d’affaires in Tehran on Saturday to protest the ‘hostile and criminal act’. IRNA added that in a conversation with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for a ‘firm response’ from the European Union and the UN Security Council to the attack.