Ukraine’s deadly attack on an Iranian cargo ship named Anna in the Caspian Sea was Vladimir Zenensky’s “gift” to Israel and the US, the former senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Kanani Moghaddam, told RT.

The strike, which killed one Iranian sailor and injured another on Saturday, came three days before Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump.

Zelensky acknowledged the operation shortly after it occurred, hailing the “very strong results” of strikes on vessels that he claimed “were involved in the transportation of military cargo” linked to Iran.

“This shows that Zelensky, on the eve of his trip to America, wanted to give a gift to the Zionists and Trump, and thus took this action,” Moghaddam said.

The former commander also warned that if Ukraine continues to attack Iranian ships in the Caspian Sea, Tehran will retaliate using medium-range missiles. Iran possesses missiles with ranges of around 2,000km, which, according to publicly available estimates, could reach parts of eastern Ukraine.

Watch the full statement below.