Mar 10, 2026
3 min read
Read on Il Fatto Quotidiano.it: Zelensky has offered the US and Gulf countries cheap Ukrainian drones to deter Iranian martyrs in exchange for more expensive Patriot missiles.
War with Iran, Zelensky project: sell drones to the US and Gulf countries to stop Shahed in exchange for Patriot missiles.
They include a suite of drones capable of destroying Shad, as well as the technicians and instructors who use them. Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to get into the Iranian game by offering the Gulf states that firestorm from Tehran the best that Ukraine can offer in a war situation. The principle is quite large. The three countries are ready to buy."But the cooperation with the US has already begun. On Thursday, the leader of Ukraine explained to the "New York Times", and on Friday a team of teachers left for Jordan with the task of learning how to protect American military bases.
Kiev's proposal comes from afar.Immediately after the Russian invasion, Ukraine used expensive missiles or even more expensive Patriot interceptors to shoot down Iranian drones used by the Russian military.A strategy that soon proved economically unsustainable: If Shahed costs $50,000 to $100,000, you need $3 to $4 million for a US-made Patriot.So, over the years, Kiev has developed low-cost interceptors that cost between $1,000 and $2,000—though for those buying from abroad, the price increases because of the cost of instructors and training programs—to take the systems from prototype to mass production.And now he says he's confident he can make the experience of the last four years of war available to the United States and its allies in the Middle East.
In fact, interceptor rockets are not only expensive but also rare.In early January, Lockheed Martin, the largest supplier of U.S.Armed Forces, announced that it has reached a record of 600 interceptors PAC-3 MSE Patriot batteries collected throughout the year of 2025. The plan was to reach 2,000 in 2032, but almost the first week of the war against Iran was enough to raise suspicions.In this context, Ukraine's contribution to the production of low-cost, fast and easy-to-build drones can be significant.Having the ability to resist the latter is still a real challenge.So Zelensky proposed a "change" to the allies: "We want to get the Patriot missiles that we deliberately lacked and in return we will give them a corresponding number of interceptor drones."
The production system, the companies say, could answer the questions.SkyFall, known for its Vampire drone-bomber and the P1-SUN interceptor specialized in shooting down kamikaze drones like the Shahed, estimated that it could produce up to 50,000 interceptors a month and export 5,000 to 10,000 without interfering with the needs of the Ukrainian army.Oleksandr Yakovenko, founder of TAF Industries, told the Financial Times that the United Arab Emirates has requested 5,000 drones, Qatar 2,000, and Kuwait is also interested: "They want to understand how to integrate our aircraft into their defense systems, because it is not enough to rely only on the Patriots."The Council of the Ukrainian Defense Industry, which brings together the main companies in the sector, estimated that today the producers of interceptor drones will produce about twice as much as the Ukrainian army needs in the war with Russia.
In order to sell abroad, however, some legal provisions are necessary.Since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Kiev has imposed an embargo on arms exports to direct all supplies to its armed forces.On October 28, Zelensky instructed the Ministry of Defense to start the "controlled export" of weapons abroad and on February 9 he announced his intention to open 10 arms export centers across Europe, from Germany - where a project of 100 million euros was started in a partnership with the German company Quantum Systems - to the United Kingdom, with which the Kiev agreement of October's mass production intercepted or more is neededfor October.statements," Yevhen Mahda, executive director of the Institute of World Politics, a Kiev think tank specializing in the analysis of foreign policy and national security, told the Associated Press, "How can we talk about exports if we haven't officially sold anything yet?"
