Ukraine is signing 10-year defense partnerships with three Gulf countries as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its second month and shows no sign of slowing down. <\/p>\n
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an agreement with Qatar<\/a> on March 28, the day after his visit to Saudi Arabia where he secured a deal<\/a> with Riyadh. Another agreement<\/a> with the UAE will be inked in the coming days, Zelensky told reporters at a press briefing during his visit to Qatar. <\/p>\n “The first priority is weapons \u2014 their production, exchange of experience, and the exchange of scarce resources that one country may have and another lacks,” he said. <\/p>\n “During these 10 years, we will engage in co-production. We will build factories both in Ukraine and in these countries.”<\/p>\n In turn, the Ukrainian leader discussed long-term energy<\/a> cooperation with the three countries. Ukraine\u2019s energy sector is under constant attack from Russia while Iran\u2019s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz sent fuel prices<\/a> through the roof. <\/p>\n After the last brutal winter<\/a> revealed massive oversights in the energy sector, Kyiv is already preparing for the next heating season. <\/p>\n Zelensky didn\u2019t reveal anymore details about the 10-year agreements. But he stressed that Ukraine\u2019s expertise goes beyond just drone production \u2014 it also includes Ukrainian soldiers’ four-years of experience countering Russian aerial attacks as well as Ukraine\u2019s electronic warfare systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gulf leaders have looked to Ukraine for support after Iran launched missiles and drones at its neighbors following U.S and Israeli strikes on Tehran on Feb. 28. <\/p>\n Zelensky is leveraging Ukraine’s air defense expertise to shore up support as the U.S. looks to divert resources<\/a> to its aerial campaign on Iran<\/a>, alarming Kyiv. <\/p>\n Ukrainian soldiers have been helping defend the UAE from Iranian air attacks over the last few weeks. And training programs are also on the table as part of the 10-year partnerships, Zelensky said. <\/p>\n “If you want a high-level relationship with Ukraine, it\u2019s not just drones. It\u2019s our specialists. And the specialists are our soldiers,” Zelensky said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine is signing 10-year defense partnerships with three Gulf countries as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-567687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}