Ukraine deploys drone experts to Gulf states as US-Iran conflict deepens
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held their second meeting in two weeks at the White House this week, the latest in a series of encounters that have transformed what was one of the most strained relationships in international diplomacy.
The meeting followed the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who had been a staunch backer of Ukraine. Earlier in July, Trump and Zelenskyy met at the NATO summit in Ankara, where Trump praised Zelenskyy — whom he had once called a “dictator” — and said he would grant licenses for Ukraine to develop its own Patriot missile interceptors. Trump cast doubt on that promise at a cabinet meeting on Friday, according to administration officials.
The warming marks a sharp reversal from February 2025, when Trump publicly upbraided Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and effectively expelled him from the White House. The initial blowup coincided with Trump’s push to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which he had promised to settle “on day one” of his second term. Trump ally Laura Loomer traveled to Kyiv and met with Zelenskyy; after the meeting she said she had been “bamboozled” by Russian propaganda and admitted having believed “a lot of untrue things” about Ukraine. Loomer said she followed the meeting with a phone call to Trump.
The diplomatic thaw has unfolded alongside the deepening US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on February 28. A June memorandum of understanding that sought a 60-day ceasefire collapsed as hostilities resumed over the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway Iran closed at the start of the war. Trump and his administration have struggled to conclude the conflict.
Ukraine, which has faced years of Iranian-supplied Shahed drones in its war with Russia, has positioned itself as a potential asset for Washington. Zelenskyy told UK lawmakers in March that 200 Ukrainian military experts had been dispatched to 11 countries across the Gulf — including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait — to advise on how to combat Shahed drones.
“There’s no question that he’s warmed up to Zelenskyy,” said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former White House adviser on European affairs. “We’ve gone from a phase in which he was throwing Zelenskyy out of the Oval Office, and turning his back on him, to a situation today where they seem to have a reasonably good relationship, and where there have now been a succession of meetings that have gone well.”
Kupchan said Zelenskyy had been a “good salesman” in communicating to Trump that Ukraine would help on Iran. “It’s an investment in his relationships with Trump, and with Europe, because he’s demonstrating Ukraine’s value as an ally,” Kupchan said. “And I think Trump, who is endlessly transactional, might actually agree to help Ukraine a bit more because Ukraine has stepped up when America’s chips are down in the war with Iran.”
“I find it quite plausible that that could be a reason” for Trump’s shift, said Trita Parsi, an Iranian analyst and vice-president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “At a moment when he is stuck in a war, faced with bad military options, and suddenly the Ukrainians are approaching him no longer asking for American charity but offering help.”
Last weekend, Ukraine struck an Iranian commercial vessel on the Caspian Sea. Kyiv said the ship was being used to transport arms to Russia. Iran said the strike had killed an Iranian sailor and threatened retaliation.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, said he called his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, after Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump. “I stressed that our goal is to avoid unnecessary escalation,” Sybiha wrote on social media. “All of Ukraine’s actions are aimed solely at defending our country from Russian aggression and never intended to target civilian vessels or people.”
Zelenskyy, in a post on X, said Ukraine had recorded “active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and US military facilities located there” since the beginning of July. He said there was a “clear correlation” between Russian satellite imagery of those sites and Iranian strikes.
Sina Toossi, a fellow at the Center for International Policy, said Ukraine’s intervention had bolstered the perception in Tehran that the two conflicts were becoming interconnected. “Trump’s apparent warming toward Zelensky only strengthens this perception,” Toossi said. “The likely implication is not an immediate missile strike on Ukraine, but a broader expansion of where Tehran believes it can legitimately impose costs.”
Matt Duss, vice-president of the Center for International Policy, warned that Zelenskyy’s efforts to help Trump with Iran risked eroding support for Ukraine among Democrats and Europeans who opposed the Iran war. “Trying to draw closer to Israel in the war on Iran really undermines a lot of Ukraine’s case, because Israel is effectively trying to do to the Palestinians precisely what Russia has been trying to do to Ukraine, which is to erase them as a people,” said Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Bernie Sanders.
Despite the warmer tone at the top, skepticism of foreign wars and of sending further aid to Ukraine remains strong among Trump’s political base. “The centre of gravity in the Maga movement is still skeptical of foreign wars, and of sending large amounts of money to Ukraine, and I don’t see that changing,” Kupchan said.