ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Ukraine on Tuesday rejected accusations made by Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qasim al-Aboudi, who claimed that Ukrainian intelligence cells operating within Iraq “targeted Iraqi interests with strikes.”

During a televised interview with al-Dijla TV on Monday, Aboudi said he has “an intelligence cell” that has discovered “Ukrainian involvement in Iraq - and there are groups that we have discovered that carry out strikes, albeit limited, but they are Ukrainian cells.”

“We have executed an arrest warrant against a small bunch of people that have confessed to operating on behalf of Ukraine, and they targeted Iraqi interests with strikes,” he added.

Aboudi did not disclose what interests were targeted or how.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry strongly rejected the claims as “baseless” accusations and an attempt to sow discord between Kyiv and Middle Eastern countries, saying they mirror Russian propaganda.

It added that Iraqi authorities had not communicated any concerns through diplomatic channels and that they learned of the allegations through the interview for the first time.

“We consider it unacceptable and irresponsible for a high-ranking official of a friendly state to publicly disseminate such statements without proper evidence. This contradicts the principles of mutual respect and harms Ukrainian-Iraqi relations,” the ministry said.

Ukraine has developed advanced anti-drone capabilities during its war with Russia and has already deployed experts to the region, including to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to assist in countering Iranian drone and missile strikes in the Gulf.

Iran has proved a key ally for the Russian war effort, supplying Moscow with Shahed drones that have been used on the frontlines in Ukraine. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday announced that Kyiv's armed forces had struck vessels in the Caspian Sea accused of carrying Iranian military cargo, provoking outrage in Tehran and marking another degree of internationalization of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

In addition to the theater of conflict in Europe, Ukraine's military and intelligence services have widely been reported as having been active in targeting Russian interests in Sudan and Syria, in the latter case assisting Syrian rebels to strike attack Russian military bases that were supporting the government of Bashar al-Assad before his ousting in December 2024.