The Kremlin has said that a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea should be considered as an assault on Iran itself, adding that the attack shows how important it is to eliminate what it says is the threat from Kyiv, Reuters reports.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Ukrainian attack, saying it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv had struck vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has accused Ukraine of widening the geographical scope of what he has called its “terrorist attacks”.

Peskov accuses Kyiv of blowing up Germany’s Nord Stream pipelines — something it denies — and of hurting Kazakhstan’s interests by targeting CPC Pipeline Infrastructure.

“This threat must be neutralised and definitively destroyed,” Peskov says.