Wed 18 March 2026:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that 201 Ukrainian anti-drone specialists have been deployed across the Middle East to help counter Iranian Shahed drones, while an additional 34 stand ready to support these efforts.
“Our teams are already in the Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and on the way to Kuwait. We are working with several other countries,” Zelenskyy said, speaking to around 60 parliamentarians in a Westminster committee room in the UK parliament, where NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was also present.
Stressing that he does not want Iranian drones against its neighbours to succeed, Zelenskyy said Ukraine sent these military experts “at the request of our partners, including the United States.”
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“In fact, this is a part of drone deal we proposed to the United States, which we worked on together and which is still on the table, and we are ready to offer similar deals to all our reliable partners, from practical cooperation on drones to future defence alliances,” he said.
He said the Iranian drones are designed for the “low-cost destruction” of expensive critical infrastructure targets, claiming that Iran taught Russia how to launch them and gave it the technology to produce them.
“Russia then upgraded them, and now we have clear evidence that Iranian Shaheds used in the region contain Russian components,” he said.
Zelenskyy added: “So what is happening around Iran today is not a faraway war for us because of the cooperation between Russia and Iran. And we do not believe we have the right to be indifferent.”
He said the Iranian Shahed drone costs about $50,000, but to shoot it down, partners often use missiles costing up to $4 million or combat aircraft.
-Source: TRT World & Agencies
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