Ukraine offers Gulf states air defence swap

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday offered US allies in the Middle East a swap of some of their air defence missiles in exchange for Kyiv’s vaunted drone interceptors, to better protect them from Iranian drone attacks.

The Israeli and US strikes on Iran have triggered retaliatory Iranian strikes – including with drones – across the region.

Russia has been using Iranian-designed Shahed drones throughout its four-year invasion of Ukraine, and Kyiv has developed a range of cheap and effective drone interceptors – aerial craft designed to hit incoming attack drones mid-air – that it says are world-leading.

At the same time, Ukraine is struggling with a shortage of PAC-3 air defence missiles – expensive ammunition fired at incoming Russian missiles to defend Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure.

“The number one issue is how to protect their skies. We ourselves live with this question,” Zelensky said.

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“Let’s speak about weapons that we’re short of: PAC-3 missiles – if they give them to us, we will give them interceptors,” he added.

PAC-3 missiles, he said, do not work to protect against a barrage of hundreds of Shahed drones.

“This is a fair exchange. We will certainly do this. And if the teams start working now, we’ll see what the result is,” Zelensky told journalists in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader spoke on the phone with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed on Tuesday.

Iran’s bombardment in the Gulf states has hit military bases but also civilian infrastructure such as residential buildings, hotels, airports and sea ports, rattling a region long seen as a refuge from Middle East conflict.

Iran is relying heavily on its missile arsenal for its barrages – weapons that can be intercepted by PAC-3 air defence systems.