Vladimir Putin hits out at Trump's strikes and says Russia is 'helping' Iranians

Russian despot Vladimir Putin has blasted Donald Trump over his Iran strikes and has said Russia is now helping Tehran.

Putin branded the strikes on Iran as an "unprovoked aggression that has no justification," according to Russian news agency TASS. Putin reportedly added: "Russia [is] making efforts to help [the] Iranian people."

While Putin has not yet hinted what he meant by "help," Moscow is an ally of Iran and has benefitted from drones being delivered from Tehran. Iran has been a major supporter of Putin's war in Ukraine and has supplied weapons and technology to the country in a bid to help it achieve its war goals.

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Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has also arrived in the Russian capital in a bid to secure support from Putin after nuclear sites in the country were pummelled by US and Israeli bombers. According to Russian media outlets Araghchi reportedly said after touching down: "In this new dangerous situation... our consultations with Russia can certainly be of great importance."

It is unclear whether Moscow can offer significant military support as it remains embroiled in its war in Ukraine. Russia has spent vas amounts of its resources in a bid to retain control of occupied eastern Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump launched military strikes against three nuclear sites in Iran amid fears the country's leaders had been enriching uranium close to what is needed to develop a nuclear weapon. Mr Trump touted the operation as a massive success, claiming it had significantly dented the country's nuclear programme.

Trump's administration has claimed the attack did not mean there would be a larger war with Iran with Vice President JD Vance stating in an interview with NBC: "We're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear programme."

But American voters might have raised an eyebrow and been reminded of the early phase of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after he raised the prospect of regime change in Tehran. In a post shared to his social media platform, TruthSocial, Mr Trump said: "It’s not politically correct to use the term ‘regime change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn’t there be a regime change."

His comments were markedly different to those of his US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who previously said on Sunday when commenting on the bombing campaign: "This mission was not and has not been about regime change."