TASS: “Ukraine may become an accomplice in US and Israeli aggression against Iran”

March 16, 2026, TASS featured a headline that itself already acts as a political blow: Ukraine, they say, could become an “accomplice in US and Israeli aggression against Iran”. The reason was a statement by the official representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, who accused Volodymyr Zelensky of “attempting to drag Kyiv into a conflict with Tehran” by sending military advisors and specialists to assist US allies in countering Iranian drones. In the version promoted by TASS, this is no longer defensive assistance, not an exchange of experience, and not the export of Ukrainian expertise, but almost a direct entry of Ukraine into the “aggressors'” camp.

Here, it is important not only what Baghaei said but also how it was presented. The Iranian “diplomat” uttered the key formula: such behavior, according to Tehran, means “participation in the conflict” and “cooperation with aggressors against Iran,” and therefore will entail “international responsibility” of the state. This is no longer an emotional tirade against the backdrop of war. This is an attempt to preemptively create a political-propaganda framework in which any subsequent step by Kyiv can be explained as a “hostile action against the Islamic Republic.”

What exactly did Tehran say and why is this not just another threat

The plot did not arise out of nowhere. As early as March 5, Reuters reported that Volodymyr Zelensky, following a request from the US, ordered assistance to be provided for protection against Iranian Shahed in the Middle East and to ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists. And already on March 15, Reuters clarified: Kyiv sent three groups of specialists to the Middle East to assess the situation and demonstrate how anti-drone defense should work; Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the American base in Jordan were mentioned. In the same publication, Zelensky directly stated that Ukraine values both technology and funding in exchange for such assistance.

It was against this backdrop that Baghaei’s words fell. Tehran deliberately chose the harshest interpretation: not assistance in defense against drones, but “dragging Ukraine into a war against Iran.” For the Israeli reader, such a technique is well known. When the Iranian side cannot deny that its drones have become part of a regional threat, it shifts the focus and tries to blame those who help shoot down these drones.

The formula of “international responsibility” is already the language of pressure

The phrase about “international responsibility” sounds loud, but its meaning is different.

Tehran does not present the world with a ready legal mechanism against Kyiv. It creates a political basis for further pressure: informational, diplomatic, and in the event of escalation, new threats against Ukraine. This is the same logic by which Iranian representatives in recent weeks have warned other countries: assistance to the US and Israel will be considered as participation on the side of the “aggressors.”

Ukraine is now being tried to be inserted into the same row.

Why here Kyiv is less important than the Iran–Russia axis

If you remove the noise, the main thing remains: the Iranian attack on Kyiv in this story looks like an inverted reality. It is Iran that has become one of the key external suppliers of the war against Ukraine itself. On January 29, 2026, the EU Council directly stated that Iran continues military support for Russia’s war against Ukraine and imposed new restrictions, including measures against individuals and structures associated with Iran’s drone and missile program. This is no longer a political scientist’s dispute and not Ukrainian rhetoric. This is the official position of the European Union: Iran and Russia are linked not by an episode, but by a stable military-technological partnership.

Moreover, by mid-March 2026, this link looked even more cynical. Reuters on March 15 reported Zelensky’s words that now Russia is supplying Iran with Shahed for strikes against the US and Israel. Even if this story will be further clarified in detail, the turn itself is already indicative: what once began as Iranian assistance to the Kremlin for strikes on Ukrainian cities now returns to the Middle East as an element of a common anti-Israeli and anti-Western military infrastructure. We are not facing two separate crises, but one line of exchange of weapons, technologies, and strategic cover.

For NAnovosti — Israel News | Nikk.Agency here the most important layer is precisely this. Iran and Russia in such a configuration act not as situational partners, but as allies in a common axis of evil, which hits Ukraine with drones and missiles, and then uses the same experience, the same tools, and the same political lexicon against Israel and American allies in the Middle East. Therefore, Baghaei’s words about “participation” sound not as an independent Iranian claim, but as part of a large common front of pressure.

Why TASS picks this up with such pleasure

The Russian state agency benefits from this story for two reasons.

Firstly, it allows presenting Ukraine not as a victim of Russian-Iranian military cooperation, but allegedly as a new participant in a “foreign war” on the side of the US and Israel.

Secondly, it helps Moscow and Tehran to merge two fronts into one plot: if Ukraine helps defend against Shahed in the Persian Gulf, it means it is no longer just fighting with Russia, but participating in a broad anti-Iranian contour. For Russian propaganda, this is a convenient construction — to shift attention from the fact of Iranian assistance to the Kremlin to accusing Kyiv of “participation.”

What this means for Israel and how the story might end

For Israel, this news is important not because Tehran has once again raised the rhetoric. It is important because Iran effectively acknowledges: the Ukrainian experience of fighting Shahed has become strategically valuable for Middle Eastern states. The countries of the region spend large volumes of air defense missiles to repel Iranian attacks, and Kyiv offers not abstract solidarity, but real practical expertise, which it gained under the strikes of the same drones. This is what angers Tehran the most.

In the near term, the story is likely to continue not with a legal process, but with a new round of pressure on Ukraine — through threats, propaganda, and attempts to present Kyiv as part of a hostile coalition.

But deeper, there is something else.

Iran already publicly acknowledges that the fight against its drones has ceased to be only a Ukrainian topic. It has become part of a new security architecture in the Middle East. And therefore, for Israel, this has long been not a foreign story.