Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the United States would be enforcing new sanctions on Iran on Tuesday following an Iranian shipment of short-range missiles to Russia.

Iran’s move to ship weapons to Russia is an escalation, and Blinken said Russia is likely to use the weapons soon.

“We’ve warned Tehran publicly, we’ve warned Tehran privately, that taking this step would be a dangerous escalation,” Blinken said during a press conference in London. “Russia has now received shipments of these missiles.”

Iranian officials denied they had sent weapons to Russia, but both countries share close relations and have been involved in their shared conflicts. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has also pushed back against the accusation.

“Not every time information of this kind corresponds to reality. We are developing dialogue with Iran in the most sensitive areas and will continue to do so,” he told reporters on Monday.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday that reports Russia had received weapons from Iran “is very much of our immediate concern.” Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, appeared to use a more moderate approach to U.S.-European relations, but the new shipment of weapons would indicate otherwise.

The shipments come as the U.S. declines to let Ukraine use certain American weapons in its fight in fear that it could escalate Russia’s offensive actions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently pleaded with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to let Ukraine use long-range missile systems in its fight against Russia as what is expected to be a brutal winter approaches.

“We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace,” Zelensky said last week at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base.

“We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin,” he said.

The U.S. recently pledged an additional $250 million in support for Ukraine as its war against Russia continues. Ukraine has started an incursion into Russian territory but lacks the pure military might of Russia as a whole and continues to fight on its homefront.

Blinken will travel to Ukraine on Wednesday “to show continued support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s aggression,” a State Department spokesman posted on X.

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The U.S. is waging a proxy war with Russia as it supplies weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

China, a closer ally to Russia than the U.S., has also been accused of providing support in Russia’s effort to defeat Ukraine.