Moshsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said Tehran abandoned plans to strike three targets in Ukraine after Kyiv allegedly apologized for an incident involving an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, The Insider reported, citing Israeli news site Ynet.
"We were ready to strike three targets in Ukraine, but after the country apologized, we canceled the attack," Rezaei was quoted as saying. Neither Ukraine nor Iran has publicly reported any apology from Kyiv.
Ukraine's acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he held a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. In his statement, Sybiha did not mention an apology but urged Tehran to refrain from escalation and stressed that all Ukrainian actions are aimed solely at repelling Russian aggression.
After Sybiha's post, Araghchi wrote that the Ukrainian minister assured him the strike on the Iranian ship was unintentional. Later, several media outlets reported new details of the conversation not present in the parties' public statements. Times of India, citing Iranian media, wrote that Sybiha allegedly called the incident an "operational error." Lebanese TV channel Al Mayadeen spread a similar version, citing a source in Tehran.
The conflict arose after Ukrainian strikes on Russian facilities in the Caspian Sea on July 25. According to Ukrainian intelligence, the strikes hit the cargo ship Port Olya 2 and the dry cargo ship Begey, which were used to transport military cargo between Iran and Russia, including Iranian drones and ammunition.
Following the strikes, Araghchi accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel, saying an Iranian sailor was killed. Tehran also said it "never interfered in the Russia-Ukraine conflict," contradicting confirmed facts of Iran-Russia military cooperation — since 2022, the Russian military has used Iranian Shahed attack drones against Ukraine.