Vessel attack sparks fresh conflict between Russian-allied Iran and Ukraine

The Ukrainian president, in subsequent remarks posted on social media, said Kyiv had recorded since the beginning of July, "active Russian satellite surveillance of the Persian Gulf states and US military facilities located there. These images subsequently appear in Iran."

"At the same time, there is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes — both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterwards, to assess the damage inflicted," Zelenskiy said.

He said that on July 19 and 20 alone, Russian satellite observation had included four air bases: two in Bahrain, one in Jordan and one in Kuwait.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray in Cairo; Editing by Ron Popeski, Rod Nickel and Matthew Lewis)