Ukraine to help US and its allies counter Iranian drones in Middle East, says Zelenskyy

The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.Various countries, including the US, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against the Iranian drones, Zelenskyy said late on Wednesday. He said he has spoken in recent days to the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation.Ukrainian assistance in countering Iranian drones will be provided only if it does not weaken Ukraine’s own defences, the Ukrainian president said, and if it adds leverage to Kyiv’s diplomatic efforts to stop the Russian invasion.“We help to defend from war those who help us, Ukraine, bring a just end to the war” with Russia, Zelenskyy said. Later on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he had received a US request for support to defend against the drones in the Middle East and had given the order for equipment to be provided along with Ukrainian experts, without providing further details.“Ukraine helps partners who help our security and the protection of our people’s lives,” he added in a social media post.Trump, in an interview on Thursday with Reuters, said: “Certainly I’ll take, you know, any assistance from any country.”Russia has sent tens of thousands of Shaheds into Ukraine since it invaded its neighbour just over four years ago, at one point launching a swarm of more than 800 drones and decoys in its biggest night-time barrage.Iran has responded to joint US-Israeli strikes by launching the same type of drones at countries in the Middle East.Ukraine has pioneered the development of cut-price drone-killing equipment that cost as little as $1,000, rewriting the air defence rulebook and making other countries take notice.Ukrainian manufacturers have developed low-cost interceptor drones specifically designed to hunt and destroy Shaheds, and its rapidly expanding drone industry is producing excess capacity.European countries got a wake-up call in September last year on the changed nature of air defence when Poland scrambled multimillion-dollar military assets, including F-35 and F-16 fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters, in response to airspace violations by cheap drones.Zelenskyy announced earlier this year that Ukraine would begin exporting the battle-tested systems.The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said before chairing a meeting of EU and Gulf foreign ministers on Thursday that the talks would look at how Ukraine’s experience can help countries counter Iranian drones.The Iran war, now in its sixth day, has drawn international attention away from Europe’s biggest conflict since the second world war, and forced the postponement of a new round of US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine planned for this week, Zelenskyy said.“Right now, because of the situation around Iran, there are not yet the necessary signals for a trilateral meeting,” Zelenskyy said. “But as soon as the security situation and the overall political context allow us to resume that trilateral diplomatic work, it will be done.”Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said Russian president Vladimir Putin was trying to drag out the negotiations so he could press on with Russia’s invasion while escaping further US sanctions.He urged the US administration to look at the Russia-Ukraine war and the war in the Middle East as linked.“In reality, Russia and Iran are close allies that act in concert – Iran supplies weapons and Russia helps Iran develop its defense industry. These are interconnected conflicts,” Merezhko told the Associated Press.Ukraine’s army has recently pushed back Russian forces at some points along the roughly 1,250km (750-mile) frontline, according to the Institute for the Study of War.Localised Ukrainian counterattacks liberated more territory than Ukrainian forces lost in the last two weeks of February, the Washington-based thinktank said this week, estimating the recovered land at about 257 sq km (100 sq miles) since 1 January