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Russia on Feb. 28 condemned what it described as U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, calling them “a preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent U.N. member state,” according to a statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry posted on Telegram. The ministry demanded an immediate halt to the military campaign and said the situation should return to diplomacy, while placing responsibility for escalation on Washington and Tel Aviv.
In its statement, Russia said “Washington and Tel Aviv” were “hiding behind” concerns about Iran’s nuclear program while actually pursuing regime change. The ministry also warned that the attacks risked triggering a “humanitarian, economic and possibly radiological catastrophe” in the region and said the U.S. and Israel were “plunging the Middle East into an abyss of uncontrolled escalation.”
Russia said it viewed the bombing of nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards as “unacceptable.” It also criticized what it called the “serial nature of destabilizing attacks carried out by the U.S. administration,” accusing the U.S. of attacking “the international legal pillars of the world order.” The statement said, “Responsibility for the negative consequences of this manmade crisis, including an unpredictable chain reaction and spiraling violence, lies entirely with them.”
Russian diplomacy on the matter unfolded through contacts with Iranian officials. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Lavrov spoke by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and that Araghchi briefed Lavrov on Iran’s attempts to repel the attacks. The ministry said Araghchi also told Lavrov that Iran would seek to convene an urgent U.N. Security Council session.
Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Iran with Russia’s Security Council via videoconference, though he did not provide further details. The condemnation also came amid recent signs of warmer ties between Moscow and Washington, including Putin’s praise for U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia has kept a long-standing balancing act in the Middle East, navigating warm relations with Israel alongside strong economic and military ties with Iran. Moscow has emerged as a key trade partner and supplier of weapons and technologies for Iran, which has faced bruising international sanctions, and neither side acknowledged allegations that had described cooperation on drones and missile technology.
The cluster also pointed to the broader regional context around Russia and Iran. Iranian forces and Russian sailors conducted annual drills in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean last week, which Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency described as aimed at “upgrading operational coordination as well as exchange of military experiences.” Putin and Iran’s leadership also have deepened ties in recent years, including a cooperation pact signed in January of the previous year between Putin and Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, publicly supported the strikes on Iran, calling it “an accomplice of Putin” for supplying Moscow with Shahed drones and the technology to produce them and other weapons during the four-year war against Ukraine, according to the report. The account also noted that Russia and Iran previously pooled their efforts to support Bashar Assad’s government in Syria, although Assad and his family later fled to Russia after his downfall.