The week started with a bizarre incident in the Caspian Sea involving an Iranian commercial vessel and the Iranian military, an episode which threatened to expand the war by merging two conflict theatres.
Iran had accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel by long-range drone in the Caspian Sea on Saturday, which resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another.
Soon after, Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to severely protest the "hostile and criminal" attack, IRNA reported.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that the "blatant UN Charter violation" which was "done at Israel's behest" could serve to "drag Europe into its war." Araghchi also denounced and attacked Zelensky personally, calling him the "freeloader in Kyiv".
But on Tuesday, there was a rapid walk-back and climb-down of sorts regarding the whole murky incident.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi newly stated that Ukraine's foreign minister assured him that the Ukrainian drone attack on the Iranian commercial vessel was "unintentional".
"Was assured by Ukrainian FM [Andrii Sybiha] that the attack on an Iranian ship was unintentional and Ukraine seeks no escalation," Araghchi wrote on X. "Iran does not seek escalation either, but made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable. There must be restitution for losses."
Ukraine's top diplomat Andrii Sybiha in turn didn't exactly deny it was an intentional attack; however, he did acknowledge that a civilian vessel was struck, and not a military one.
"I reiterated that all of Ukraine’s actions are aimed solely at defending our country from Russian aggression and never intended to target civilian vessels or people," Sybiha said after a call with Araghchi.
"This is also true with regard to Iran’s statements about their national who died and a civilian vessel that was targeted in a recent incident. Our goal is to counter Russian aggression, which is the root cause of all incidents, and it is Russia who bears full responsibility for all provocations and casualties," he added.
So it seems the two sides have agreed to downplay the attack incident and just move on. And yet what makes this bizarre and unexpected is that Ukraine seemed to initially be openly boasting of the escalation.
President Zelensky himself announced soon after on X, "We also have very good results from long-range strikes in the waters of the Caspian Sea. In particular, these are vessels that were involved in transporting military cargo from Iran, and a warship."
It is also perplexing how a long-range drone attack on a maritime vessel, presumably hundreds of miles away and which would require very precision targeting, could result in a direct hit and yet be 'unintentional'.