It is the rupture between Ukraine and Iran. Relations had already soured after the January 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airways Flight 752, but the rapprochement between Iran and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine put them to rest. Ukrainian deputies adopted, on Monday, May 29, a draft sanctions against the Islamic Republic accused of supplying arms to Moscow for its war.

“This resolution synchronizes Ukrainian sanctions with the actions of the entire civilized world on the path to the complete isolation of Iran,” the Ukrainian parliament wrote on its website. This sanctions package includes a ban on military trade with Iran, a halt to the transit through Ukraine of such goods, and the “suspension of economic and financial obligations in favor of Iranian residents”.

The text must still be signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky to be promulgated, a formality since the latter is the one who introduced the resolution to Parliament, at the suggestion of his Security and Defense Council.

Thanks to the war, Iran has moved closer to Russia and is accused by kyiv and the West of supplying weapons used by Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, in particular the Shahed suicide drones.

If kyiv initially tried to appease the Islamic Republic, the failure of this approach seems to have been confirmed today. “Iran today is a terrorist regime that poses a threat to Europe and the Middle East,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted on Sunday. “Tehran has become a key ally of Moscow in this war, deliberately supplying it with weapons for attacks on civilian towns,” Podoliak said. His message followed the largest drone attack of the conflict on the Ukrainian capital, carried out with several dozen Iranian drones.

Zelensky’s message to Iran

President Voldymyr Zelensky addressed the people of Iran on Wednesday in a video subtitled in Persian, in which he denounced that when an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone “hit a dormitory with students , people die, fire breaks out, rescuers arrive, then minutes later a second Shahed strikes to kill rescuers.” “Your Shaheds who terrorize Ukraine every night mean that the Iranian people are being pushed more and more into the dark side of history,” Mr. Zelensky said in his video, relayed on social media in Iran.

Tehran replied on Saturday, accusing him of criticizing Iran in an attempt to obtain more aid and weapons from the West: “The repetition of false allegations by the Ukrainian president against the government and the people Iranians” aims to “attract as much arms and financial aid as possible from Western countries”, said Iranian diplomatic spokesman Nasser Kanani.

Tehran admitted having supplied drones to Moscow, but assured that these deliveries had taken place before the offensive in Ukraine. “The Islamic Republic has always declared that it opposes the war in Ukraine,” Kanani repeated on Saturday.