Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, gave a geopolitical thumbs up to Russia's war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on Tuesday.

"War is a violent and difficult endeavor, and the Islamic Republic is not at all happy that people are caught up in war," Khamenei said, according to his office. "But in the case of Ukraine, if you had not taken the helm, the other side would have done so and initiated a war."

The Iranian supreme leader's statement seemed to suggest that Kyiv and its Western allies would have launched a war against Russia had it not invaded Ukraine.

The Iranian supreme leader's full-throated approval of the war stands in contrast to China's more ambiguous approach.

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