Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu held talks with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian media said, days after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Unin Pyongyang.

Western leaders fear Russia traded nuclear secrets to Iran in exchange for ballistic missiles aimed at Ukraine, escalating global tensions.

Britain and the US fear Russia may have shared nuclear secrets with Iran in exchange for missiles to use in its war against Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russia is likely to start hammering Ukraine with Iranian-provided ballistic missiles "within weeks."

Top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu held talks with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran on Tuesday, Russian and Iranian media said, days after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

A senior Russian official visited Iran on Tuesday, likely to bolster missile supplies, experts said. His visit came days after a trip to North Korea.

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile in what would be it second such barrage this month, as Kim Jong Un’s regime intensifies a threat to expand its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea sent its foreign minister to Russia for her second trip in less than a year to the major backer of Kim Jong Un’s regime. The move comes as Pyongyang readies for a parliamentary meeting that will likely approve measures that raise tensions with South Korea.