Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is considering providing expertise on shooting down Shahed attack drones to Middle Eastern countries. The president also reported that dialogue with partners on this issue is already underway.
The president announced this at a briefing on March 5, a correspondent for Suspilny reports.
According to Zelensky, active consultations are already underway with the leaders of Middle Eastern countries – Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, and others.
“We want to obtain scarce missiles for Patriot systems and transfer the appropriate number of interceptors. We clearly understand how many we need and how many we can quickly produce, subject to dialogue with partners,” said President Zelensky.
He added that Ukrainian expertise in the field of air defense can be useful not only for the protection of civilians, but also for the protection of oil infrastructure, which is of global importance.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga stated during a briefing that the security situation in the Middle East is also related to Ukraine.
“Iran creates a global terrorist threat, supplies weapons to Russia, and creates nuclear risks. We have responded politically and diplomatically, expressed solidarity, and condemned Iran's act of aggression against the countries of the region,” said Andriy Sybiga.
According to him, Ukrainian combat experience and technologies are among the key achievements that have already aroused the interest of partners. “We are now discussing certain specific time frames and specific practical steps to implement all this and contribute to de-escalation and reduction of security challenges in the region,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister said.
Earlier, President Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine, together with teams from the UAE, Qatar, and other states, will determine how to jointly strengthen the protection of people's lives in the Middle East.
“At the level of our teams: Ukrainian, Emirates, Qatar and other states, we will determine how we can all together provide more protection for life. Ukrainian expertise in protection against “shaheeds” is currently the greatest in the world, and it is the “shaheeds” that are the biggest challenge there in the region,” Zelenskyy said.