Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured Gulf countries, signing defense and security deals leveraging Ukraine's military prowess.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured Gulf countries under attack from Iran, signing defense and security deals that harness Ukraine's innovative military prowess while trying to portray fighting there as part of a global battle against allies Iran and Russia.
The trip highlighted Ukraine's growing confidence in the region where it is looking to convince wealthy Gulf nations -- who adopted a largely neutral approach in the years after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 -- that they share a common enemy against whom Kyiv is a credible partner.
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have hosted diplomatic talks and facilitated prisoner exchanges between the warring sides, but the Arab nations have stopped short from sanctioning or politically isolating Russia, a major global energy player.
Zelensky's efforts to cement new ties in the Middle East come at a critical time for Ukraine, which is stubbornly resisting Russia's invasion, now in its fifth year, at the same time as President Trump is pushing for a quick end to the war.
The withdrawal of direct U.S. military aid, and a global focus on the Iran war, are pushing Kyiv to turn to other partners for financial and military aid.
Ukraine hopes that in exchange for sharing its equipment and unmatched know-how in combating drones in the petrostates' hour of need, it can win them over and tap them for help with its reconstruction, energy needs and deterrence of Russia with sanctions.
"Ukraine receives a lot of gratitude," Zelensky said on the trip. "We have definitely changed the geopolitical situation."
Russian drones that have swarmed Ukrainian cities are modernized copies of the Shahed drones that Iran has sent hurtling toward its Persian Gulf neighbors this month in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes against it.
That similarity, and Ukraine's innovations in drone combat, put Kyiv in a unique position to help the Arab states, which are running low on expensive interceptors and looking for other ways to blunt the impact of Iran's projectiles.
On his visits to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E and Jordan over the past few days, Zelensky drew comparisons between their fight against Iran and Ukraine's against Russia.
"Ukraine is being attacked with essentially the same strike drones as those used against countries in the Middle East and the Gulf region," he said in a social-media post Sunday. "We must unite our capabilities so that people can live in peace in Europe, the Middle East, and other parts of the world."
When Iran began launching drones at its neighbors a month ago, it exposed a missing layer of air defense over the Gulf region -- its countries lacked cheap, effective solutions to counter drones without deploying expensive, scarce antiballistic systems and jet fighters to shoot them down.
Ukraine faced the same problem over three years ago, forcing it to develop a multilayered approach that integrated mobile air-defense groups, jamming and interceptor drones to help shield its skies. About a week after Iran began its drone attacks, 11 countries reached out to Ukraine to learn about its systems.
Zelensky said the partners were interested in the Ukrainian experience, training, interceptors and electronic jamming. The country decided to send over 200 military experts to the region to teach the best ways to defend its valuable infrastructure.
During his Gulf visit, Zelensky met with those Ukrainian teams, who gave him an assessment of the security situation, a review of the countries' ability to counter aerial threats and proposed solutions to strengthen their defenses.
To identify infrastructure targets in coming Russian attacks, Ukrainian intelligence collects information on sites captured by Russian satellites. That list now also includes sites in the Middle East captured by Russia in Iran's interest, Zelensky said.
Looking down at the latest report on his phone, Zelensky read off a list of these sites to journalists: U.S.--U.K. joint military facility on Diego Garcia; Kuwait's International Airport and its Greater Burgan oil field; and Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, among others. The air base was the target of an Iranian attack Friday that left 12 troops injured and damaged an American E-3 Sentry aircraft, among other planes,The Wall Street Journalreported.
"When surveillance is carried out over facilities in Ukraine, we always understand that they must be protected, since plans are in motion to destroy them -- energy and water infrastructure, military facilities, and so on," Zelensky told journalists via Zoom on Saturday during his trip.
In return for its expertise, Ukraine wants to strengthen cooperation with Gulf countries in four main areas: political support for Ukraine and backing for its sanctions policy against Russia and Iran; security cooperation; assistance in reconstruction projects; according to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi.
The immediate fruit of his trip has been to reach two decadelong strategic partnerships. Ukraine struck 10-year cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar; while another is in the works with U.A.E., Zelensky said.
These deals will benefit Ukraine's defense-industry exporters, with deals worth billions of dollars, he estimated, as the countries planned to engage in joint production in Ukraine and the region.
Long-term energy cooperation was another priority for Zelensky on this trip, as he secured commitments in an increasingly volatile market, including a year's worth of diesel supplies.
"Our reserves are tied up in contracts,"the Ukrainian president said.
"But when there are shortages, this approach may work -- or it may slow things down. That's why we need long-term agreements with energy-producing countries."