KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of actively providing satellite imagery of American military facilities in the Persian Gulf to Iran, alleging a direct link between Russian surveillance passes and Iranian strikes on U.S.-linked air bases in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait.

“Since the beginning of July, we have recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and U.S. military facilities located there,” Zelenskyy stated. “These images subsequently appear in Iran.” He said “there is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes — both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterward, to assess the damage inflicted.” On July 19 and 20 alone, four air bases fell within the area of interest of Russian satellites — two in Bahrain, one in Jordan, and one in Kuwait, Zelenskyy said.

The allegations deepen a pattern first disclosed after the United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, when officials revealed Russia was providing intelligence to help the Iranians track U.S. troops, warships, and aircraft. According to The Wall Street Journal, Russia initially supplied only a limited amount of intelligence derived from satellite imagery but later began providing this imagery directly to Tehran. Reuters reported on June 22 that U.S. intelligence was investigating whether Russia provided targeting information that aided Iranian attacks on CIA facilities in the Gulf, including a March 3 strike on the CIA station in Riyadh.

On the same day as Zelenskyy’s remarks, the Security Service of Ukraine announced it had conducted long-range drone strikes against cargo vessels in the Caspian Sea that Zelenskyy said were “used in military cargo shipments involving Iran.” The SBU initially identified the ships as the Port Olya-2 and the Begey, both allegedly involved in earlier Iranian weapons transfers to Russia. Ship-tracking service MarineTraffic indicated the vessels were headed from the Iranian port of Amirabad to Russia’s Astrakhan. The SBU later deleted the ship names from its social media announcement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Ukraine actually struck the Ana, an “Iran-flagged dry-cargo ship” that was “sailing out of Astrakhan.” Tehran said the strike had killed one sailor and injured another. Moscow and Tehran claimed the Ana was carrying civilian cargo, but Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korinchuk said it “contained materials for drones and missiles” and was “on the way to Russia” — contradicting MarineTraffic data showing the Ana headed from Astrakhan to Iran’s Bandar Anzali port as of July 24. “We are fighting the same enemy, a different side of the same axis of evil,” Korinchuk declared.

The Caspian Sea has served as a key corridor for Russian-Iranian military trade since Iran shipped Shahed-136 one-way attack drones to Russia beginning in 2022. The flow has recently reversed: Western and Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of supplying Tehran with electronic warfare guidance, drone components, and entire drones, including upgraded versions of the Shahed-136 that Russia has been producing under Iranian license since 2023. According to Reuters, Western intelligence analysts believe the Iranians hit the CIA station in Riyadh with “a pair of Russian-enhanced versions of Iran’s Shahed drones.” Bloomberg reported that unnamed “Western allies” believe Russia supplied recently produced missiles to Iran after the abortive April 8 ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.

The Israeli military struck Iran’s Bandar Anzali port in March to disrupt Russian assistance to Tehran. A month after the April 8 ceasefire, U.S. officials told The New York Times that Russia was shipping drone components to Iran via the Caspian Sea, helping Tehran reconstitute strike capabilities degraded during the war. The renewed hostilities have reinvigorated oil prices that slumped after the ceasefire, filling the Kremlin’s coffers, while draining U.S. supplies of costly air defense munitions — including PAC-3 missiles desperately needed by Ukraine.