Ukraine has sent drone specialists and interceptor drones to help defend US military bases in Jordan from Iranian drone attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Monday, March 9.
Zelensky told the New York Times that the United States requested assistance last week and that a Ukrainian team departed the following day.
“We reacted immediately,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine had agreed to send experts to assist in protecting US forces in the region.
The president also met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Wednesday, March 4, to discuss the situation and express Ukraine’s support and solidarity with the people of Jordan and the broader region.
The deployment comes as the war involving Iran expands across the Middle East and countries in the region face waves of Iranian drone attacks.
Kyiv has developed significant expertise in countering Iranian-designed drones during Russia’s full-scale invasion, as Moscow has repeatedly used Shahed-type attack drones against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Ukrainian officials say the country has created relatively inexpensive interceptor drones capable of destroying incoming attack drones in mid-air, systems that have proven effective against the long-range one-way drones used by Russia.
Zelensky has also suggested that Middle Eastern countries could exchange air defense missiles for Ukrainian drone-interception technology as Kyiv faces shortages of advanced Western air defense ammunition.
Ukraine relies heavily on US-made Patriot interceptor missiles to defend against Russian ballistic missile attacks and fears that the war in the Middle East could further strain global supplies of such systems.
During the winter, delays in Western missile deliveries left parts of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure vulnerable to Russian strikes, with hundreds of thousands of people temporarily left without electricity or heating as temperatures plunged below zero.