TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Saturday that the decision by the Ukrainian government in reviewing its diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic are based on “unconfirmed reports” and media commotion created by foreigners.

Nasser Kanaani said Iran has taken an “active impartial” position toward the Russia-Ukraine conflict, insisted on Tehran’s opposition to war and the underlined the need to settle the dispute politically without resort to violence.

Kanaani added the repeated contacts of Iran’s foreign minister with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts over the past months have been in line with ending the war.

In conclusion, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iran will respond in kind to the move by Ukraine and advised the Kyiv government to avoid being influenced by third parties that seek to undermine relations between the two countries.

Ukraine has downgraded diplomatic ties with Iran and stripped its ambassador of his accreditation over what it called Tehran’s “unfriendly” decision to supply Russian forces with drones.

“Supplying Russia with weapons to wage war against Ukraine is an unfriendly act that deals a serious blow to relations between Ukraine and Iran,” said a statement on the foreign ministry’s website, the Guardian reported.

“In response to such an unfriendly act the Ukrainian side has decided to deprive the ambassador of Iran of his accreditation and also to significantly reduce the number of diplomatic staff of the Iranian embassy in Kyiv.”

The message was handed to Iran’s acting ambassador since the permanent envoy, Manouchehr Moradi, is not currently in Ukraine.