&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Ukraine signs air defence deal with Saudi Arabia, offers its drone expertise")
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine has signed a deal with Saudi Arabia to share its drone defence expertise and technology and help the country tackle multiple aerial attacks from Iran. Zelensky said Saudi Arabia has been facing similar ballistic missile and drone attacks from Iran that Ukraine had been resisting from Russia over the last four years.
“We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
Kyiv is leveraging its expertise in downing Russian drones to help Gulf nations, which are being attacked with the same kind of Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia fires on Ukraine.
Ukraine has been using a mix of cheap drone interceptors, electronic jamming tools, and anti-aircraft guns to down Russian drones fired at its cities for over four years now. It also touts its anti-drone defences as the best in the world.
‘Looking for assistance in defending Ukraine in exchange’: Zelensky
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Zelensky said that in exchange he would be looking for assistance in defending Ukraine against the ongoing Russian invasion.
“We would like Middle Eastern states to also give us an opportunity to strengthen ourselves. They have certain air defence missiles of which we don’t have enough. That’s what we’d like to reach a deal on,” he said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.
“Saudi Arabia also has capabilities that are of interest to Ukraine, and this cooperation can be mutually beneficial,” Zelensky said.
The deal is not only about interceptors as such but about building a system, integrating it with other air defence components, Ukrainian experience in its use, AI, and all the other elements of data analysis needed to counter Shaheds and other drones, said a Ukrainian official seeking anonymity.
During his visit to Saudi Arabia, Zelensky also met with Ukrainian anti-drone experts deployed to the country facing drone and missile attacks from Tehran in retaliation for the US and Israel strikes on Iran.
‘Approached by Gulf states for help,’ say Ukrainian drone companies
As per reports, several Ukrainian drone companies have been approached by Gulf states for help but have not yet been given the green light by the government in Kyiv.
Representatives of Ukrainian companies that make anti-drone electronic warfare systems said they had been approached by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and were told to discuss this with the Ukrainian government first.
Ukraine has proposed swapping its interceptors for vastly more expensive air defence missiles that Gulf countries are using to down Iranian drones. Ukraine says it needs more of them to fend off Russian missile attacks.
