Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s foreign minister assured him that the Ukrainian drone attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, which killed an Iranian mariner, was “unintentional,” though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously suggested it was a targeted strike.
“Was assured by Ukrainian FM [Andrii Sybiha] that the attack on an Iranian ship was unintentional and Ukraine seeks no escalation,” Araghchi wrote on X. “Iran does not seek escalation either, but made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable. There must be restitution for losses.”
In his statement on the call, Sybiha didn’t explicitly deny it was an intentional attack but acknowledged the ship that was hit was a civilian vessel.
“I reiterated that all of Ukraine’s actions are aimed solely at defending our country from Russian aggression and never intended to target civilian vessels or people,” Sybiha said, recounting what he told Araghchi.
“This is also true with regard to Iran’s statements about their national who died and a civilian vessel that was targeted in a recent incident. Our goal is to counter Russian aggression, which is the root cause of all incidents, and it is Russia who bears full responsibility for all provocations and casualties,” he added.
On the day of the attack, July 25, Zelensky claimed in a post on X that the Iranian vessel was carrying weapons, which Iranian officials have denied. “We also achieved very strong results with long‑range strikes in the Caspian Sea – including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship,” he said.
The attack on the Iranian vessel raised fears about the merger of the Russia-Ukraine war with the US-Iran war. The US is known to provide intelligence for Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks, meaning it was likely involved in the operation.
