U.S. airstrikes on Iran send strong message to Putin — Israeli diplomat

Diplomat Arkady Milman, senior researcher and head of the Russia program at the Institute for National Security Studies, Israeli ambassador to Russia (2003-2006), expressed this opinion during an interview with Studio West host Antin Borkovskyi on Espreso TV.

“From the first day of his second term, Trump tried to present himself as a peacemaker: we’ll talk to everyone, Russia is not a villain, Putin is a good guy, the war would have ended in 24 hours if I were president instead of Biden, and there wouldn’t have been a war. And Putin echoes that, it benefits him to repeat this narrative. But here’s one positive point: Trump gave the order to bomb Iran. That means, in certain situations, Trump won’t hesitate to use force. It’s a serious signal to Putin,” the diplomat noted.

According to him, Putin has made threats —“we’ll drop tactical weapons on Ukraine,” “we’re about to use them,” “we’ll bomb London, Paris, Bonn,” “we’ll punish everyone.” Meanwhile, Trump simply gave the order, the planes flew in, and a full-scale military operation was carried out. We thought certain planes would do the bombing, but entirely different ones did. A special maneuver was executed — Trump gave the order, and it all happened.

“In this situation, I think Medvedev’s reaction — he immediately got scared and wrote that he never said Russia would give Iran an atomic bomb, that he actually meant other countries — speaks volumes. And the very fact that Trump personally responded shows that the U.S. administration is now paying very close attention to everything that’s happening. To some extent, this gives hope, if that thief sitting in the Kremlin crosses certain lines, it’s quite likely that a sharp response from Trump can be expected,” Milman emphasized.

• On the night of June 22, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States had conducted airstrikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
• According to CBS News intelligence sources, the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities on June 22 have only delayed Tehran's nuclear program by a few months.
• However, during a press conference at the NATO summit, Trump stated that the U.S. had destroyed Iran’s nuclear program. If they make further efforts in this direction, the U.S. will completely undermine it.