Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly receiving medical treatment in Russia following serious injuries sustained during a US-Israeli airstrike, as fresh questions mount over whether he is alive and capable of leading the country.
According to Kuwaiti news outlet Al-Jarida, citing a source described as “high-ranking and close to the new Iranian Supreme Leader,” Khamenei was secretly transported aboard a Russian military aircraft to one of President Vladimir Putin’s presidential palaces, where he underwent surgery that was described as successful. The outlet reported the operation was “personally offered by Putin” after his injuries could not be adequately treated inside Iran while the country remains under sustained attack.
The report is unconfirmed, and a separate source had previously told The Sun through messages passed to an exiled dissident in London that Khamenei was being treated at Sina University Hospital in Mashhad. That source described his condition as “very serious,” claiming that one or both of his legs had been amputated and that his liver or stomach had ruptured. The source added that he appeared to be in a coma and was under the care of Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi, Iran’s Minister of Health and one of the country’s leading trauma surgeons.
The contradictions between the two accounts have done little to resolve the uncertainty surrounding Khamenei’s whereabouts. An Iranian official speaking to The Telegraph from inside the country said: “No one knows anything about Mojtaba, whether he is alive or dead or how badly injured. He has no control over the war because he is not here. The majority of commanders — or more correctly, all commanders — have no news about him.”
Senior US officials have added to the speculation. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a press conference on Friday that the new Supreme Leader was “wounded and likely disfigured.” President Donald Trump went further over the weekend, telling NBC News: “I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” and stating he had heard rumours of his death.
An Israeli security official told the Daily Mail bluntly: “We know where he is,” while advising against placing trust in Iranian state communications on the matter. Israel had previously made clear its intentions, with Defence Minister Israel Katz writing on X on 4 March that any leader selected to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be “a certain target for assassination, no matter his name or where he hides.”
Khamenei succeeded his father following the assassination of 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 28 February. He has issued one public statement since taking power, in which he declared Iran would not “refrain from avenging the blood of its martyrs” and confirmed attacks on US bases in the region would continue. The statement was read by a news anchor; Khamenei did not appear on camera.
In a separate development on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced they had destroyed a private aircraft belonging to the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport. The IDF stated the plane had been used by senior regime officials to manage military procurement and coordinate communications with allied countries. The destruction of the aircraft, the military said, would damage “the Iranian terrorist regime’s leadership coordination capabilities” and its ability to rebuild.
The question of who is effectively directing Iran’s military operations amid the ongoing conflict is expected to remain a central concern for intelligence agencies and allied governments in the days ahead.
