President Donald Trump cast doubt in recent days on allegations that Russia is helping Iran target U.S. forces, even as members of his own administration acknowledge Moscow and Beijing are supporting Tehran in other ways.
Trump dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claim that Russia supplied Iran with satellite imagery of U.S. military installations in the Gulf, saying any assistance would have been “very unimpactful” given the damage inflicted on Iran’s military.
“We’ll find out if that’s true. I’ll ask Putin. We’ll find out,” Trump told reporters at the end of July.
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“I don’t think they’ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,” Trump added. “And if they have, it has been very unimpactful.”
Trump pointed to the damage Iran’s military has suffered during the war. Russian help, he argued, has failed to stop the United States from destroying much of Tehran’s conventional forces.
Trump’s comments came as his administration confronted separate reports that Russia and China are helping Iran in different ways — allegations that, if borne out, would suggest America’s two chief geopolitical rivals are quietly supporting a nation at war with the U.S. Members of his own administration have acknowledged broader help from Moscow and Beijing.
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War Secretary Pete Hegseth has said Russia and China are “enabling some of the things Iran is doing,” but a White House official told Fox News Digital that any foreign assistance has failed to improve Tehran’s ability to attack Americans.
Trump’s comments came in response to two recent reports: Zelenskyy’s allegation that Russia provided satellite intelligence to Iran and a Reuters report that China could send hundreds of shoulder-fired air-defense missiles to Tehran through Pakistan, which China has denied.
Fresh satellite imagery could help Iran locate high-value assets and refine strike coordinates, then show whether an attack hit its intended target.
“As the President stated, nothing that any outside actor is doing to help Iran is in any way increasing their ability to target Americans,” the official told Fox News Digital, responding to questions about Zelenskyy’s claim that Russia gave Iran satellite imagery of U.S. military installations in the Gulf.
Zelenskyy laid out Ukraine’s evidence Saturday, saying Russian satellites had surveyed Gulf countries and U.S. military installations beginning in early July before the imagery later appeared in Iran.
“These images subsequently appear in Iran,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Ukraine found what Zelenskyy described as a “clear correlation” between the Russian observations and subsequent Iranian attacks. According to Zelenskyy, Moscow collected imagery before strikes to aid targeting and returned afterward to assess the damage.
Zelenskyy said Russian satellites focused on four air bases over two days — two in Bahrain and one each in Jordan and Kuwait — and said Ukrainian intelligence had shared the information with foreign partners.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Olga Stefanishyna said at a July 30 reporter roundtable that the allegation did not arise during Zelenskyy’s White House meeting with Trump because the agenda was crowded. She said Ukraine had provided the information “through other channels.”
A Ukrainian official told Fox News Digital that Kyiv wants to avoid “opening a second front” with Iran.
Hegseth acknowledged Russian and Chinese support for Iran during a Senate hearing in July.
There was “definitely adversary alignment,” Hegseth said. Russia and China were “at different levels, enabling some of the things Iran is doing.”
The U.S. has ways to deter that support, he added, though some of those measures should remain classified. Hegseth said earlier in the war that the administration knew “exactly” what Moscow and Beijing were doing and was addressing their actions where needed.
Russia has denied supplying Iran with intelligence on American military targets. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the locations of U.S. bases were publicly available. The Kremlin also dismissed earlier reporting about Russian intelligence support for Iran as false.
Trump also questioned reports that Iran could soon receive hundreds of Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense systems through Pakistan, saying Chinese President Xi Jinping had assured him Beijing would stay out of the conflict.
“That was surprising. I mean, things like that happen, but that would be surprising. He told me very strongly he wouldn’t partake, but he knows I’d be quite disappointed. He’s coming here, I think, on September 24,” the president told reporters Wednesday.
Matthew Kroenig, a former Pentagon and intelligence official, called the reports “highly plausible,” pointing to growing cooperation among Russia, China and Iran.
“From Russia and China’s point of view, if they can complicate the U.S. war in the Middle East and raise the cost to Washington, that’s a good thing for them,” Kroenig told Fox News Digital.
Kroenig said Trump may be warning Moscow and Beijing privately instead of confronting them before television cameras.
“That might be the most generous interpretation, that it’s his way of warning China and Russia to knock it off,” he said.
Trump’s comments would carry more risk if the president were relying on assurances from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kroenig said. He urged the administration to make clear that either country would face a cost for helping Tehran.
“I think there would be a risk to just discounting this altogether,” Kroenig said.
Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Moscow has spent years building closer military ties with Tehran.
“If this proves accurate, Russia has found a way to help Iran without direct military engagement, and that’s why this is significant,” Borshchevskaya told Fox News Digital.
Iran began supplying Russia with Shahed attack drones in 2022, giving Moscow a cheap weapon it could launch in waves against Ukrainian cities and power infrastructure.
Russia later began producing its own versions with Iranian support and improved the design, making the drones a mainstay of its attacks. Tehran’s earlier support now hangs over Zelenskyy’s claim that Moscow is helping Iran target American forces.
Satellite imagery would give Moscow another way to aid Tehran while avoiding a direct clash with American forces.
“It’s hard to think how the provision of intelligence is insignificant,” Borshchevskaya said.
She said Trump may be trying to keep his public exchanges with Moscow calm as U.S. officials send firmer messages in private.
Russia views the wars in Ukraine and Iran as connected parts of its campaign against American influence, Borshchevskaya said. U.S. officials tend to handle each conflict through a separate policy process.
“The challenge for us is that we often separate theaters, but Russia does not,” she said. “Russia looks at all of these conflicts in a much more interconnected way.”
Borshchevskaya said Russia has chosen forms of aid that can strengthen Iran without committing Russian troops or entering a direct fight with Washington.
“Russia is being restrained here,” she said. “They’re playing a much more nuanced game.”
Trump also voiced surprise Wednesday at a report that Iran could soon receive hundreds of Chinese-made, shoulder-fired air-defense systems through Pakistan.
Xi had given Trump a firm assurance that China would stay out of the war, according to the president.
“He told me very strongly he wouldn’t partake, but he knows I’d be quite disappointed,” Trump said.
China called the report “groundless.” Pakistan rejected the claim that it would help route the weapons to Iran, calling the allegation “baseless and devoid of truth.”
Kroenig said Beijing has supplied Russia with economic and industrial support during the war in Ukraine. China has stopped short of openly sending lethal weapons, a limit he had expected Beijing to observe in the Iran war.
Advanced air defenses would require approval from the Chinese government, he said. Russian satellite intelligence would also come from state-controlled capabilities.
“There are no mom-and-pop shops in St. Petersburg selling this data,” Kroenig said.
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