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Russia Supplies Iran With Cyber Support, Spy Imagery to Hone Attacks, Ukraine Says
A damaged US Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control aircraft following an Iranian strike on the airbase, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in this picture obtained from social media released on March 29, 2026. Photo: SOCIAL MEDIA/via REUTERS
Russian satellites have made dozens of detailed imagery surveys of military facilities and critical sites across the Middle East to help Iran strike US forces and other targets, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment.
The conclusions, reviewed by Reuters, also found that Russian and Iranian hackers were collaborating in the cyber domain. They represent the most detailed account yet of how Russia has provided secret support to Iran since Israel and the US launched their campaign on Feb. 28.
Russian satellites, the undated assessment said, made at least 24 surveys of areas in 11 Middle Eastern countries from March 21 to 31, covering 46 “objects,” including US and other military bases and sites including airports and oil fields.
Within days of being surveyed, military bases and headquarters were targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, the assessment said, in what it described as a clear pattern.
A Western military source and a separate regional security source told Reuters that their intelligence also indicated intense Russian satellite activity in the region and said that imagery had been shared with Iran.
Nine surveys covered parts of Saudi Arabia, including five over the King Khalid Military City near Hafar Al-Batin, in what appeared to be an effort to locate elements of the US-made THAAD air defense system, the Ukrainian assessment said.
Areas of Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates also came under satellite surveillance twice, while places in Israel, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, and Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia did once, it said.
In an emerging trend, the assessment added, Russian satellites were actively surveying the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for a fifth of global oil and LNG flows where Iran has imposed a de facto blockade to all but “non-hostile vessels.”
PERMANENT COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL
Reuters was not able to independently confirm the content of the Ukrainian assessment.
White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said that no external support for Iran from any country was affecting the operational success of the United States. The Iranian foreign ministry had no immediate comment. The defense ministry in Russia, which invaded Ukraine four years ago, did not respond to a request for comment.
European leaders pressed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the issue at a G7 meeting last month. Two diplomats said Rubio had not responded to the accusations, although he has publicly dismissed Russian aid to Iran as insignificant.
The Ukrainian assessment said that the exchange of satellite imagery was being organized through a permanent communications channel used by Russia and Iran and could also be facilitated by Russian military spies stationed in Tehran.
The regional security source confirmed a specific incident detailed in the Ukrainian assessment that was disclosed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.
In that incident, a Russian satellite took imagery of Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia days before Iran struck the facility on March 27, hitting a sophisticated US E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft, the assessment said.
A Russian satellite passed over the same site on March 28 to assess the strike’s impact, the assessment said.
‘COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP’
Russia and Iran have deepened military ties since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In particular, Ukraine and the West say Iran provided long-range Shahed attack drones to Russia, which in turn used them to bomb Ukraine, while also developing its own, more sophisticated variants. Iran denies supplying weapons used against Ukraine.
Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian then signed a Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in January last year.
Article Four of the Treaty states that “in order to strengthen national security and counter common threats, the intelligence and security services of the Contracting Parties exchange information and experience.”
CYBER OPERATIONS
The Ukrainian intelligence assessment and regional security source said Russia appeared to be providing assistance to Iran in the cyber domain.
Hacking groups controlled by Iran have stepped up operations since late February, targeting mainly critical infrastructure and telecommunications companies in the Gulf, they said.
The Ukrainian assessment said Russian and Iranian hacker groups were interacting via Telegram and noted collaboration between the Russian groups “Z-Pentest Alliance,” “NoName057(16),” and “DDoSia Project” and Iran‘s “Handala Hack.”
For example, last month, it said groups including Handala Hack published a warning on Telegram about attacks on the information and communication systems of Israeli energy companies.
The Russian groups simultaneously published access credentials to control systems at critical infrastructure facilities in Israel, it said.
Iranian hacker groups have also used some techniques in operations that indicated they had obtained them from Russian military intelligence hackers, it said.
For instance, it said, Iranian hacker groups “Homeland Justice” (UAC-0074) and “Karmabelow80” used ProfitServer, a Russian VPS provider from Chelyabinsk, to register domains.
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US Hits Military Targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, Vance Says No Change to Strategy
US Vice President JD Vance delivers remarks at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles, California, US, June 20, 2025. Phone: REUTERS/Daniel Cole
US strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island do not represent a change in American strategy, US Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday as a US official separately told Reuters the additional strikes on military targets did not impact oil infrastructure.
The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described at least some of the strikes as targeting sites that had been previously struck before and said the attack occurred in the early morning hours of Tuesday.
Vance, speaking separately in Budapest, said the strikes were not a change in US strategy, with the Trump administration confident that it can get a response from Iran by 8 pm (0001 Wednesday GMT) in negotiations to end the conflict. US President Donald Trump is demanding Iran forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil transit waterway.
“We were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so,” Vance said.
“We’re not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don’t make a proposal,” he added. “I don’t think the news in Kharg Island … represents a change in strategy, or represents any change from the President of the United States.”
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French Nationals Leave Iran After Three and a Half Years Amid Softer France Tone on War
A woman walks past posters with the portraits of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens held in Iran, on the day of support rallies to mark their three-year detention and to demand their release, in front of the National Assembly in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. The slogan reads “Freedom for Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris.” Photo: REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
Two French nationals were heading home on Tuesday after Iran allowed them to leave the country following three and a half years in detention, a surprise move that came as Paris sought to distance itself from the war in the region.
Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris had been confined to France‘s embassy in Tehran since November, after being held since 2022 in the notorious Evin prison on spying charges that France has said were unfounded.
“This is a relief for all of us and obviously for their families,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. “Thank you to the Omani authorities for their mediation efforts.”
Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry responded to requests for comment on what had been agreed between the two sides to ensure their release.
Iran‘s official news agency IRNA said the couple were freed following an understanding under which France would in turn release Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in the French city of Lyon, and withdraw a complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice.
However, both assertions were unclear. Esfandiari, who was convicted at the end of February for glorifying terrorism in social media posts, was released after serving almost a year in prison but has appealed the conviction.
It was not clear whether she had left the country, as ordered by the February ruling. France dropped the ICJ complaint last September.
Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi spoke with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot on Sunday, confirming the pair’s imminent release.
Macron has criticized US President Donald Trump’s approach to the US-Israeli war on Iran and said France would only help restore freedom of navigation to the Strait of Hormuz once there is a ceasefire and after consultations with Tehran.
France last week refused Israel permission to transfer weapons through French airspace for the war and has led efforts to water down a draft UN Security Council resolution that could have opened the door to forceful action in the strait.
A French official briefing reporters after the release denied that France had a softer position towards Iran and said Paris had warned the Iranians about the safety of their citizens given the escalation in the war.
“I think the Iranians rightly considered that if anything happened to our compatriots, the reactions here would have been extremely catastrophic,” the official said, declining to comment on the details of the negotiation.
French officials have also refused to comment on why a container ship belonging to French shipping group CMA CGM was able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a sign that Iran may not consider France to be a hostile nation.
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Gunfight Outside Israeli Consulate in Istanbul Leaves One Attacker Dead
A drone view shows police officers and medics standing at the scene, after a gunfire was heard near the building housing the Israeli consulate, according to a witness, in Istanbul, Turkey, April 7, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
One attacker was killed and two others were wounded in an extended gun battle with police outside the tower building housing the Israeli consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Footage showed the backpack-wearing attackers firing with automatic rifles and handguns, and police officers returning fire and seeking cover, as they maneuvered among parked white police buses near a checkpoint. One body lay on the street.
Shots rang out for at least 10 minutes among the glass towers in Turkey’s main financial district, Reuters witnesses said. One person was seen covered in blood.
No Israeli staff were at the consulate, which occupies a floor in one of the towers, at the time of the attack, Turkish and Israeli authorities said.
Israeli diplomats had left Turkey shortly after the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza began in late 2023, a conflict that prompted large pro-Palestinian protests outside the consulate and across the country, and a deep chill in Turkish-Israeli diplomatic ties.
US ENVOY SAYS CONSULATE WAS TARGET
The three attackers had links to an organization that “exploits religion,” Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said, without giving any name. Two of them were brothers, and they had traveled in a rented car from the city of Izmit, he added.
While Turkish authorities did not say what motivated the attackers, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, said on X that it was an attack on the Israeli consulate and he condemned it.
President Tayyip Erdogan said the “heinous terrorist attack” would not dent Turkey’s trust and security. Israel’s foreign ministry said it appreciated Turkish security forces’ “swift action in thwarting this attack.”
Two police officers were also lightly wounded, Istanbul Governor Davut Gul told reporters at the scene of the midday incident, which occurred next to a major motorway as thousands of nearby workers were breaking for lunch.
DIPLOMATIC CHILL AMID GAZA WAR
Turkey, a fierce critic of Israel’s military operations in Gaza as well as in Lebanon and Iran, had recalled its ambassador from Israel in November 2023, and diplomatic relations have been effectively frozen since then.
At the same time that year, Israeli diplomats left Turkey due to security concerns, including the protests. Since then, heavily armed police and armored vehicles have been stationed in a broad area surrounding the consulate.
Militant violence has mostly subsided in Turkey in recent years after a violent spate from 2015 to 2016 when Islamic, Kurdish, and leftist militants carried out attacks amid the spillover from the Syrian civil war.
The latest incident was late last year when three Turkish police officers and six Islamic State terrorists were killed in a gunfight in the town of Yalova in northwest Turkey, amid raids on militant cells believed to be planning Christmas and New Year attacks.