Zelenskyy Confirms Ukrainian Drone Teams Shot Down Shaheds in Middle East During Iran War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for the first time confirmed that Ukrainian military personnel used domestically produced interceptor drones to shoot down Iranian-designed Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the recent Iran war, describing the missions as active combat support rather than training. Speaking to reporters in remarks embargoed until Friday, he said Ukrainian specialists operated across several nations before the tentative ceasefire among Iran, the United States and Israel, helping partners build effective modern air-defense networks against the same drones Russia uses in Ukraine. Zelenskyy did not name the countries involved but previously cited the deployment of 228 Ukrainian experts to the region, and said Kyiv is receiving air-defense weapons to protect its energy grid, fuel supplies of oil and diesel, and in some cases financial arrangements in return. He framed the deployments as the start of a defense-export role that Ukraine intends to "market" and formalize, arguing that helping allies strengthen their security is being traded for concrete contributions to Ukraine’s wartime resilience. The revelation highlights how Ukraine is leveraging its battlefield experience and U.S.-backed drone technology to plug into a wider anti-Iran and anti-Russia drone network, a development with implications for U.S. coalition management and escalation risks in the region.