Take the three statements in order, because each was made in public and within days of the others.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 25 that Russia has been running 'active Russian satellite surveillance' of Gulf states and US bases since early July. He named four air bases imaged on July 19 and 20: two in Bahrain, one in Jordan, one in Kuwait [1].
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, testifying on Capitol Hill, said Russia and China were 'enabling some of the things Iran is doing' [1].
Trump posted on Truth Social that he does not believe Russia and China are assisting Iran, and gave his reason: assurances he received from Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping [1].
The Secretary of Defense and the Commander in Chief are describing different wars. That is the story, and it does not require deciding who is right. One is telling Congress that the two largest American adversaries are helping the country shooting at American bases. The other is telling the public they are not, on the authority of those two countries' own leaders.
The evidentiary weight is worth noting without overstating it. Zelenskyy's satellite claim is an assertion by a party with an obvious interest in Russia being implicated, and it is not independently confirmed here. Hegseth's is different: an American cabinet official, in a congressional setting, pointing the same direction.
The claim resting on the least evidence is the one that cites Putin's word for it.
