Russia and Iran signed a strategic partnership agreement on Friday that their leaders said would strengthen ties in security and other areas, as a missile strike by Moscow’s military hit apartment blocks in eastern Ukraine, killing at least four people.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian met in the Kremlin to conclude a pact that Tehran said showed their determination to defy pressure from the West, just days before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
“We are unanimous in our intention ... to take relations to a qualitatively new level,” Mr Putin said, praising a deal that would promote “deeper bilateral co-operation in the long term in politics, security, trade, investment and humanitarian areas”.
“This truly breakthrough document is aimed at creating the required conditions for the stable and sustainable development of Russia and Iran and our entire Eurasian region,” he added.
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine wrecked already fragile relations with the West in 2022, Russia has sought to strengthen ties with countries including China, Iran and North Korea and to portray its attack on its neighbour as a defensive war against aggressive Nato states.
Iran has provided Russia with “Shahed” attack drones that explode on impact and are launched against Ukrainian towns and cities every day. North Korea, meanwhile, has sent troops, shells and missiles to Moscow’s military, and the West accuses Beijing of allowing Russia to evade sanctions and easily buy “dual use” items from Chinese firms.
“I am confident that after the signing of the comprehensive partnership treaty our relations will grow stronger every year in all fields – security, economy, culture and trade,” Mr Pezeshkian said.
He accused western powers of trying to “subjugate” other states and claimed the 20-year partnership deal would strengthen Iran and Russia internationally; both now fear losing influence in the Middle East due to the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria.
“We are sure that in our region we can co-operate without outside influence, without players from outside the region,” he added. “We can say that we do not have to listen to advice from countries across the ocean.”
Russia is also seeking new buyers for its gas and oil now that they are widely shunned in the West, and Mr Putin expressed hope that a new pipeline could take gas to Iran and that his country could build more nuclear power stations for Tehran.
Mr Trump, who will be inaugurated for his second term as president on Monday, is expected to take a tough line on Iran and has pledged to end the Russia-Ukraine war quickly, without explaining how.
Earlier this week, Ukraine engaged in a flurry of high-level diplomacy with European powers, as its president Volodymyr Zelenskiy met or talked to leaders or senior ministers from Germany, France, Italy and Poland and signed a 100-year partnership agreement with British prime minister Keir Starmer in Kyiv.
As heavy fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, at least four people were killed and nine hurt when a Russian missile hit a residential area in Kryvyi Rih, the eastern city where Mr Zelenskiy grew up.
“Each such terrorist attack is another reminder of what we are dealing with. Russia will not stop on its own – it can only be stopped by joint pressure. Pressure from all over the world, [by those] who value life,” he said.
Ukraine’s military said a “long-range strike” had hit the radar battery of an advanced S-400 air defence system in the Russian border region of Belgorod. Russia’s defence ministry said its units shot down six US-supplied Atacms missiles over the region and warned that it would prepare “a retaliatory strike”.
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