Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says he called his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, telling him to end all support for Russia [File: Omar Havana/Getty Images]By Al Jazeera Staff and ReutersPublished On 28 Jul 202628 Jul 2026
Ukraine’s foreign minister says he called his Iranian counterpart following Tehran’s denunciation of a Ukrainian drone attack on one of its ships, warning him against escalation.
“I emphasised the necessity to refrain from any escalatory steps, as well as to end any support for Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Tuesday of his conversation with Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi. “This war is illegal and it must end.”
Araghchi confirmed the phone call and, according to remarks carried by Iranian media, said that Sybiha assured that the attack was “unintentional and that Ukraine had no desire to escalate tensions”.
In a post on X, Araghchi wrote that “Iran does not seek escalation either, but made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable”.
Araghchi said on Sunday that the Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, which killed one sailor and injured another, “cannot go unanswered“. He also accused Israel of provoking the attack in an attempt to “drag Europe into its war”.
Ukraine said it had targeted a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iranian-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea.
In his comments, Sybiha said Ukraine’s actions were “aimed solely at defending our country from Russian aggression and never intended to target civilian vessels or people”.
In more than four years of conflict with Russia, Ukraine has faced barrages of Iranian-designed drones.
Kyiv has, over that time, developed technology to counter drone threats and has offered its assistance to countries in the Middle East facing strikes by Tehran in response to US and Israeli attacks on Iran this year.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X that he had spoken to Sybiha and “discussed the challenges facing our nations, including the threat posed by Iran”. He said he looked forward to deepening cooperation with Ukraine.
Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House for separate meetings with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as the wars in Europe and the Middle East continue.
Senior Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi, head of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, warned on Saturday that “any attack on Iran always comes with a cost, and that remains true today; the US and Israel are well aware of this”.
“Ukraine, too, may soon come to understand that Iran does not let actions go unanswered,” Azizi added, calling the attack in the Caspian Sea “miscalculated”.
