As drone warfare spreads beyond Ukraine, Ukrainian leader hopes diplomacy with Gulf allies could unlock support in return

Joe Barnes

Joe Barnes is The Telegraph’s Brussels Correspondent. He focuses on European politics and defence, and has covered the Ukraine war and its peace negotiations extensively. He has also covered the US elections from Washington, DC.

Published 29 March 2026

On a quiet night, Ukrainian air defence units are forced to deal with at least 100 Russian drones targeting the country’s energy infrastructure.

But more often than not the number of incoming projectiles is double, triple or even quadruple that, with a selection of cruise and ballistic missiles thrown in for good measure.

For more than four years, the deadly cocktail of long-range weapons deployed by the Russians was considered a unique problem faced by Kyiv.

But now around a dozen countries can count themselves victims of Iranian drone strikes as part of the Islamic Republic’s escalating war with the United States and Israel.

Sensing an opportunity, Volodymyr Zelensky,Ukraine’s president, has leapt to their assistance, offering Middle Eastern governments and Donald Trump advice on anti-drone warfare.

On Saturday, Mr Zelensky visited Qatar where he signed a defence agreement which “includes collaboration in technological fields, development of joint investments and the exchange of expertise in countering missiles and unmanned aerial systems”, Doha said.

Despite being faced with constant barrages at home, the wartime leader has spared some 200 Ukrainians to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait to share strategies and techniques for coping with drones.

Their air defences all appeared to be unprepared for the adversary that is Iran’s Shahed.

Iran claimed to have struck a depot in the UAE housing Ukrainian anti-drone systems on Saturday, which Kyiv brushed off as a “lie”.

But the claim highlights the potentially widening war as Ukraine joins forces with its partners in the Gulf to fend off Iran’s Shaheds.

Tehran’s one-way attack drones are cheap weapons often cobbled together with sanction-busting, off-the-shelf components.

There are many different varieties, but the most common is the Shahed-136, which are simple to transport, and launched from truck-mounted systems.

At more than 8ft wide and 12ft long, the delta-winged unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) cruise at around 115 miles per hour.

Once flying, they are believed to have a range of about 1,500 miles and use GPS to find their targets, delivering a 40kg warhead.

In many ways they are like a basic cruise missile, however, the one vastly differing metric is the cost.

While there is no official price, many estimates put it at between $30,000 and $50,000 (£24,000-£40,000).

Ukrainian officials believe that states in the Gulf were firing off Patriot air defence interceptor missiles worth 20 times that to down Shahed-type drones in the first days of the war.

Kyiv doesn’t have the luxury of doing the same, surviving off handfuls of Patriot missiles at any one time.

Those interceptors, worth about $1m (£800,000) each, are expended only to counter ballistic missiles.

Instead, over more than four years of war, Ukraine has developed new, cost-effective systems for detecting and downing Russian-launched Shaheds.

It involves more than 10,000 acoustic sensors which scan the skies for the distinctive sounds, feeding their location and predicted course into a centralised system.

Perhaps the biggest innovation is replacing expensive interceptor missiles with low-cost interceptor drones.

A source told The Telegraph that “most, but not all, of the countries from the Gulf region” had shown interest in purchasing Ukrainian systems to counter the Iranian drones.

One of the companies is SkyFall, a major producer of cheap drones for Ukraine’s armed forces.

A representative of the firm said it was ready to ship to potential customers in the Middle East as soon as it received a “green light” from Kyiv.

The firm’s P1-Sun interceptor has downed more than 1,500 Shahed-style drones and 1,000 other UAVs since entering operation four months ago.

Costing Ukraine’s military just $1,000 (£800) each, it is proving to be a cost-effective, and highly reliable, platform for combatting large-scale Russian drone barrages.

The quadcopters are packed with an 800g payload and can fly up into the sky at speeds of around 300kmph in pursuit of Shahed drones aimed at Ukrainian cities.

They can be fitted with either daytime or night-vision cameras, as well as AI microchips which assist with targeting.

In the short space of time they have been deployed on the front lines, pilots operating the P1-Sun drones have had an 88 per cent success rate.

But this accuracy rate is expected to increase to between 95-100 per cent because the interceptors’ initial launches have been during the harsh winter months, when weather conditions are not ideal for flight.

Using his call sign, Ares, a spokesman for SkyFall, told The Telegraph that the firm could ship between 5,000 and 10,000 P1-Sun drones to the Middle East almost immediately if deals are reached between Kyiv and the Gulf states, without affecting domestic supplies.

They can be fitted with either daytime or night-vision cameras, as well as AI microchips which assist with targeting.

In the short space of time they have been deployed on the front lines, pilots operating the P1-Sun drones have had an 88 per cent success rate.

But this accuracy rate is expected to increase to between 95-100 per cent because the interceptors’ initial launches have been during the harsh winter months, when weather conditions are not ideal for flight.

Using his call sign, Ares, a spokesman for SkyFall, told The Telegraph that the firm could ship between 5,000 and 10,000 P1-Sun drones to the Middle East almost immediately if deals are reached between Kyiv and the Gulf states, without affecting domestic supplies.

“We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives. Now into the fifth year, Ukrainians are resisting the same kind of terrorist attacks – ballistic missiles and drones – that the Iranian regime is currently carrying out in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” Mr Zelensky said.

He added: “Saudi Arabia also has capabilities that are of interest to Ukraine, and this cooperation can be mutually beneficial.”

While the Ukrainian president didn’t specify exactly what he was talking about, he has previously mooted the possibility of swapping interceptor drones or Patriot missiles.

“We would very much like this to be an opportunity for both sides,” Mr Zelensky said at a news conference alongside Rob Jetten, the Dutch prime minister earlier this month.

In January, Saudi Arabia placed an order with the US for 730 of the advanced interceptors and other related kit in a deal worth $9bn (£7.2bn).

It is a number of these missiles Kyiv is potentially eying up in any swap deal.

But there is also a second favour Mr Zelensky might be seeking from Riyadh.

US-mediated ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia have reached a dead end in recent months. Vladimir Putin is refusing to drop his demands for Kyiv to cede large swathes of its land as the price for peace.

However, Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf states, might be able to help.

Many of them have deliberately not taken a position on the war in Ukraine, instead opting to act as neutral mediators.

Where Mr Trump has failed to break the deadlock, could Gulf leaders succeed in convincing Russia to water down its demands?

“That’s why I said, ‘Look, so maybe they can speak with Russians and Russians will make a pause’,” Mr Zelensky told the New York Times recently.

“In this case, of course, we can help the Middle East to defend them.”

Note : I was unable to upload the pics and graphics for this article. Full body copy here :

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/03/29/zelensky-needs-patriot-missiles-answer-in-gulf/