Vladimir Putin today vowed to back Iran and condemned ‘groundless’ aggression against its ally after the US joined Israel in striking nuclear facilities on Sunday.
‘This is an absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran,’ Putin told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who travelled to Moscow seeking support in mediation.
Putin called recent strikes ‘unjustified’ and added Russia was ‘making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people.’
Putin did not single out the US attacks, talking instead broadly of ‘strikes’ against Iran, though the Kremlin had earlier said it condemned and regretted the US strikes.
‘There has been a new escalation of tensions in the region, and, of course, we condemn this and express our deep regret in this regard,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, shortly before Putin met Araghchi in the Kremlin.
Araghchi on Monday thanked Putin for condemning the US strikes on Iran, telling him Russia stood on ‘the right side of history’.
The crisis, now entering its 11th day, violently escalated on Sunday when the United States sent a fleet of stealth bombers to attack nuclear facilities across Iran.
Israel initiated the conflict with unilateral strikes against Iran, citing concerns the regime was trying to build a nuclear bomb. Iran roundly denies the allegations.
Prior to the attacks, Russia had been eyeing a role in mediating between Iran and Israel.
But the burgeoning conflict threatens to polarise onlookers and allies. The Kremlin last night accused the US of opening a Pandora’s box with its strikes on Iran.
It warned the United States was gambling with the ‘safety and well-being of humanity as a whole’.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured on Sunday, met with Iran’s foreign minister today
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, on June 23
Putin meets with Araghchi in Moscow on June 23
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia, on June 23
Iran appears to be eyeing greater support from Russia in light of the US attacks on Iranian soil.
Speaking on Monday, Araghchi told Putin that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian had asked him to convey their best wishes to Putin.
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He said Russia has been a ‘partner and companion’ to Tehran and hailed the ties between Tehran and Moscow as ‘very close and longstanding’.
‘Iran is exercising legitimate defence against these aggressions,’ he added.
Since Israel launched its wave of strikes on June 13 triggering Iran to respond with missiles and drones, Russia has not publicly offered military help to Tehran.
Putin will have a balancing act to manage, with Donald Trump still pushing Ukraine towards agreeing a ceasefire in its war with Russia.
Trump lauded Sunday’s strikes on Iran as having ‘taken the bomb right out of [Tehran’s] hands’.
The effectiveness of the strikes remains unclear. The Pentagon said it was still assessing the results of the attack.
Iran has vowed to defend itself in response.
For its part, Russia has carefully urged against action that would threaten Iranian nuclear facilities.
Moscow‘s United Nations ambassador Vassily Nebenzia issued an ominous warning at an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday, saying that ‘no one knows what new catastrophes and suffering’ the strikes will bring.
He claimed Russia had offered mediation talks to find a peaceful and mutually agreeable solution to Iran’s nuclear program.
But in some of the most pointed comments from Russia so far, he said the US, especially its leaders, are ‘clearly not interested in diplomacy today’.
‘Unless we stop the escalation,’ Nebenzia warned, ‘the Middle East will find itself on the verge of a large-scale conflict with unpredictable consequences for the entire international security system, plus the entire world might end up on the verge of a nuclear disaster.’
Donald Trump wears a MAGA cap as he sits in the Situation Room of the White House with VP JD Vance as US bombers executed strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure
Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia warned the US’s strikes on Iran had opened ‘Pandora’s box’
Vladimir Putin attends a wreath laying ceremony to the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb in the Alexander Garden along the Kremlin wall — June 22,2025
Trump called for a regime change in Iran as he held crisis talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday.
The US president took to his Truth Social page to share updates about the country’s military attacks on Iran, when he suggested that the current regime ‘is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN’.
Has Trump opened ‘Pandora’s box’?YesNo
‘Why wouldn’t there be a regime change,’ Trump asked, rhetorically – even as he and Starmer urged Ayatollah Khameini to ‘return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.’
Russian ex-president Dmitriy Medvedev claimed in a post on X/Twitter early on Sunday that the US strikes on three sites in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow had backfired and led to the opposite result from what Trump had set out to achieve.
Medvedev claimed: ‘Enrichment of nuclear material – and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons – will continue.’
Medvedev, who has served as President of Russia from 2008 to 2012, further stated that ‘Iran’s political regime has survived – and in all likelihood, has come out even stronger’.
He continued to claim that Iranians are ‘rallying around the country’s spiritual leadership, including those who were previously indifferent or opposed to it’.
His anti-US and pro-Iran social media rant was posted in English and broken down into ten points – gathering more than three million views.
There are fears Britain and other allies could face a terror backlash from the regime’s supporters.
Seven B-2 stealth bombers swept into Iranian airspace undetected yesterday, dropping 14 ‘bunker-buster’ bombs on nuclear facilities as the US joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
Abbas Araghaci, Iran’s foreign minister, arrives in Moscow for talks with Putin on how to respond to the US strikes
B-2 Stealth Bombers were used in the attack to drop bunker buster bombshttps://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/html_modules/2025/ZZ_IRAN_ISRAEL_WAR/ZZ_IRAN_ISREAL_WAR/250623_Strike_Locations/index.html
The US deployed B-2 bombers to drop more than a dozen ‘bunker busters’ at three Iranian nuclear cites including the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (pictured before the attack)
An operational timeline of a strike on Iran is displayed during a news conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The UK was informed of the mission, codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, but played no part. Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds last night warned that Iranian activity in the UK was already substantial, and it was ‘naive’ to think it won’t escalate.
Britain’s military bases in the region, such as RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus, were on the highest state of alert last night for revenge attacks, including by Iranian swarm drones.
