Russia is helping Iran target US forces deployed in the Middle East by providing confidential and sensitive intelligence, according to a report by The Washington Post, citing three US officials familiar with the matter. The development marks the first evidence of indirect involvement by one of Washington’s major nuclear-armed rivals in the ongoing war between Iran and the United States and Israel.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia had been providing Tehran with precise locations of US military assets in the Middle East, including warships and aircraft, since the war began on Saturday. One official described the assistance as “fairly comprehensive and extensive.”

The Russian Embassy in Washington has not commented on the matter. Moscow, however, has described the war as an “unprovoked act of armed aggression” and called for an end to the conflict.

Iran has faced extensive US and Israeli attacks in the first few days of the war. The Pentagon has said that much of Iran’s own surveillance infrastructure has been degraded. Nevertheless, an Iranian drone attack on a US base in Kuwait last Sunday killed six American troops. Iran also carried out a precision strike on the CIA station at the US Embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Dara Massicot, a Russian military expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Iran was now striking US radar and command-and-control systems with considerable precision. As Iran lacks its own advanced military satellites, intelligence derived from Russia’s sophisticated space and satellite capabilities has become extremely valuable to Tehran. Russia’s experience gained over several years of war in Ukraine has also helped it become more proficient at identifying targets accurately.

Nicole Grajewski, a researcher at Harvard Kennedy School, said Iranian attacks this time showed significantly greater “tactical sophistication” than during last year’s war, in some cases putting US defence systems under considerable pressure.

Analysts believe Russia has turned to supporting Iran partly in retaliation for US intelligence assistance and billions of dollars’ worth of weapons supplied to Kyiv during the war in Ukraine. Iran previously helped Russia in that conflict by supplying inexpensive drones, which strained Ukraine’s air defence systems.

“Russians know very well what kind of assistance we are providing to the Ukrainians. They seem to be quite happy to be able to get ‘revenge’ now,” one official said.

Despite providing intelligence, Russia has shown no signs of becoming directly involved in the war. According to Massicot, the war in Ukraine remains the Kremlin’s top priority. Moscow considers the current conflict not to be its war. However, a prolonged conflict could benefit Russia by driving up oil prices while diverting Western attention away from Ukraine.

Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly did not directly comment on Russia’s assistance to Iran but claimed that the Iranian regime was now increasingly cornered.

“Their missile capabilities are declining day by day, their navy is being destroyed, and their proxy groups are also unable to hold their ground,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that the Trump administration had asked Kyiv for assistance in countering Iranian drones. He added that Ukraine would send experts to help.