Putin says US strikes on Iran are pushing the world towards great danger

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 23 that “unjustified” US attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites were pushing the world towards great danger and promised to try to help the people of the Islamic Republic, though he gave no specifics.

US President Donald Trump and Israel have publicly speculated about killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and about regime change, steps Russia fears could push the

entire region into the abyss of a major war

.

Mr Putin received Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in the Kremlin on June 23 alongside his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov and Mr Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

“The absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran has no basis and no justification,” Mr Putin told Mr Araghchi, adding that he wanted to speak about ways to calm the crisis.

“For our part, we are making efforts to assist the Iranian people.”

Mr Araghchi was due to deliver a letter from Mr Khamenei to Mr Putin, seeking more help from Russia, a senior source told Reuters.

There was no confirmation of that from Moscow, though Mr Araghchi passed on best wishes from Mr Khamenei and Iran’s President.

At a meeting later with advanced military recruits, Mr Putin noted the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and the involvement of powers from outside the region, though he did not mention the US by name.

“Extra-regional powers are also being drawn into the conflict,” he said. “All this brings the world to a very dangerous line.”

Iran has not been impressed with Russia’s support so far, Iranian sources told Reuters, and the country wants Mr Putin to do more to back it against Israel and the US.

The sources did not elaborate on what assistance Tehran wanted.

Mr Putin, whose army is fighting a major war of attrition in Ukraine, has shown little appetite for a confrontation with the US over Iran just as Mr Trump seeks to repair ties with Moscow.

Moscow and Tehran

While Moscow has bought weapons from Iran and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier in 2025, the published agreement does not contain a mutual defence clause.

Russia has also said it does not want Iran to build a nuclear bomb, a step that Moscow fears would trigger a nuclear arms race across the Middle East.

Iranian officials say they feel Russia has not done enough to support it, and that they feel betrayed by major powers such as Russia and China.

Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015 to support Iran’s ally Bashar al-Assad, but as his enemies closed in on Damascus in late 2024 it refused to send troops or more air power as it considered the situation too dangerous, though

it did grant Assad asylum

.

Inside Russia, there were calls for it to come to the aid of its partner and to supply Iran with the same support that Washington had given to Ukraine – including air defence systems, missiles and satellite intelligence.

At the UN Security Council on June 22, Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East after US strikes.

Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former US secretary of state Colin Powell making the case at the UN Security Council in 2003 that then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

“Again we’re being asked to believe the US’ fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our US colleagues nothing,” he said. REUTERS