During the recent surge of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks in the Gulf, the value of Ukraine’s battlefield experience came into renewed focus. In recent weeks Iran’s waves of cheap Shahed kamikaze drones have targeted Gulf cities and U.S. bases across the Middle East, straining missile-focused air-defenses.
The U.S. and its allies in the Middle East sought insight from Ukraine – still under relentless Russian drone fire at home – hoping to draw on their counter-drone expertise. As Reuters reported, Gulf states “expended large quantities of precious air-defense missiles” to stop Iran’s drones and “have sought Ukraine’s expertise in downing them”.
Ukraine has deployed anti-drone experts to the three countries visited by President Zelensky on his Gulf tour, and is pushing joint programs on missile and drone defense. This role reversal signals how far Ukraine’s once-modest air-defense forces have come.
Ukraine has spent several years under the heaviest drone campaign in history. Since 2022, Russian forces have launched some 60,000 Iranian-made Shahed drones at Ukraine, often in swarms of hundreds a night. Against such massed threats, Ukraine could not rely solely on high-end missiles (like Patriots or NASAMS), which are costly and finite. Instead, Ukraine has improvised a multi-layered shield featuring cheap FPV interceptor drones, agile air-defense guns, repurposed civilian technology and sophisticated command-and-control networks. This expertise has ow become a strategic asset for Ukraine and is seen as extremely valuable by its allies.
