Ukraine will receive much-needed fossil fuels from Gulf countries in exchange for the defense assistance it is providing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv made defense pacts with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in March, but further details of those agreements were not revealed then. At the time, Iran’s drone swarms were battering the region in response to American and Israeli attacks.
Middle Eastern allies of Washington looked to Kyiv for help — they wanted Ukraine’s drone combat expertise, accrued over four years of war with Russia. Last month, Zelenskyy sent more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers from his anti-drone units to the Middle East to help those countries fend off Iran’s low-cost Shahed drones — a variant of what Ukraine has faced from Russia.
On Friday, Zelenskyy explained the defense deals in a briefing to journalists.
