Ukraine has begun deploying its hard-won battlefield expertise in drone warfare beyond Europe, sending its interceptor drones and specialist teams to help defend US military installations in the Middle East as regional tensions escalate, Bankova said on March 9.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed that Kyiv had dispatched personnel and equipment to Jordan after Washington sought assistance in the wake of rising hostilities with Iran, The Kyiv Independent reports.

According to Zelenskiy, the request from Washington came on March 5 as the security situation across the region deteriorated following the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28. Ukraine agreed immediately and deployed a team the following day.

“We reacted immediately,” the president said. “I said, yes, of course, we will send our experts.”

The first deployment of Ukrainian drone tech to the Middle East, several other Gulf states have contacted Kyiv and also asked for help as their own supplies of Patriot air defence are degraded by the intensity of the Iran missile and drone barrages. In the last week, Iran has targeted US bases, diplomatic facilities and civilian targets across the region. Military analysts say many of these attacks rely on variants of the Shahed-type drones that Russia has used extensively against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure since 2022.

Over the past three years Ukraine has developed sophisticated methods to detect, jam and intercept such systems, combining electronic warfare, radar integration and new classes of interceptor drones designed to destroy incoming unmanned aircraft before they reach their targets.

Ukraine has emerged as a world leader in drone technology and in 2025 became the world's largest recipient of major arms in 2021–25, receiving 9.7% of total global arms imports in 2021–25 compared to the previous five-year period, according to a new report from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released on March 9.

“Ukraine was the world’s largest recipient of major arms in 2021–25, receiving 9.7% of total global arms imports in 2021–25 compared with 0.1% in 2016–20. The United States remained by far the world’s largest supplier of major arms. Its arms exports went up by 27% between 2016–20 and 2021–25, giving it a 42% share of total global arms exports,” the report said.

Now Ukraine is beginning to export arms. Until recently weapons exports were banned to ensure sufficient supplies for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the battlefield. but the rules were relaxed last year as the production of arms soared. At the end of last year Zelenskiy said that Ukraine-made weapons now meet 60% of the AFU’s needs and some exports will be allowed to raise money for investing into the growth of the defence sector.

Ukraine aims to export billions of dollars in defence products in 2026, according to Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, David Aloyan. In February, the relevant wartime licensing commission approved most of the 40 applications from defence-sector manufacturers to export military assets and services, with Germany, Britain, the US, Northern European countries, three Middle Eastern nations, and at least one Asian country as among those most eager to buy. According to Aloyan, priority will go to exports supporting countries that have backed Kyiv during Russia's aggression.

Since the outbreak of war in the Middle East, Zelenskiy said Kyiv has received requests from at least 11 countries bordering Iran, as well as several European states and the US, seeking cooperation in areas including interceptor drone systems, electronic warfare and training.

“Ukraine is ready to respond positively to requests from those who help us protect the lives of Ukrainians and Ukraine's independence,” he said. “We have already responded to some of the requests.”

The spread of Iranian-designed drones across multiple theatres of conflict has turned Ukraine’s battlefield innovations into valuable exportable expertise. Defence analysts note that Ukraine has had to build layered counter-drone systems rapidly, often using cheaper interceptor drones rather than relying solely on unaffordable Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles and cost $4mn a piece. The lesson of the Ukraine war is that the cost-to-kill ratio has become a central strategic factor and keeping the costs down and mass producing drones now outweighs the power and accuracy of more traditional missile types.

Kyiv has been discussing wider security cooperation with several Middle Eastern states, some of which maintain close ties with Moscow. Zelenskiy suggested those relationships could potentially play a diplomatic role in efforts to pause the war in Ukraine.

“That’s why I said, Look, so maybe they can speak with Russians and Russians will pause,” Zelenskiy said as cited by The Kyiv Independent. “In this case, of course, we can help the Middle East to defend them.”

Ukraine is no friend of Tehran, which has become a key member in the emerging alliance between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK). All of these countries have been investing heavily in their defence sectors and between them have half the world’s men under arms in their standing armies. Russia alone has 1.4mn men under arms and the Kremlin plans to expand that to over two million men in the coming year.

Russia has publicly condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with the Russian foreign ministry describing them as “an unprovoked act of aggression against a sovereign and independent state”, despite Moscow’s own war against Ukraine.