Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has received intelligence that Russia is monitoring US bases in the Middle East and Gulf regions.
He claimed yesterday that seven areas had been monitored or photographed this week. These include US, Middle Eastern and British bases in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, as well as the US-British base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
“This is strange. Sanctions are being lifted, and the attacker is providing information to target targets, including targets in countries that are talking about lifting sanctions or have already lifted them,” Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.
Zelensky was likely referring to the US temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil. Multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue have said that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran about the location of US military assets and their activities. According to a Western intelligence official, Russia is also providing strategic advice to Iran regarding targeting through its ‘Shahid’ drone.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov flatly denied that Moscow was providing intelligence assistance to Iran. Lavrov told French television that Russia and Iran have very close relations under a military-technical cooperation agreement, and he confirmed that Moscow has provided certain types of military equipment to Tehran.
However, he insisted that the allegations of leaking intelligence were baseless, and pointed out that the locations of US military bases in the region were publicly available. “We cannot accept the accusation that we are helping Iran by providing intelligence,” he said.