{"id":453617,"date":"2026-03-02T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453617\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:11:08","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-starmer-says-ukrainian-experts-will-help-shoot-down-iranian-drone-attacks-in-gulf-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453617\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Starmer says Ukrainian experts will help shoot down Iranian drone attacks in Gulf | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Ukrainian experts would provide guidance on intercepting Iranian drones being launched at Gulf allies, as Tehran responds to the US-Israeli strikes<\/a> on Iran. \u201cWe are not joining these strikes, but we will continue with our defensive actions in the region,\u201d Starmer said on Sunday night. \u201cAnd we will also bring experts from Ukraine, together with our own experts, to help Gulf partners shoot down Iranian drones attacking them.\u201d Ukraine was yet to comment on Starmer\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Russia fired more missiles in overnight attacks at Ukraine in February than in any other month since at least the beginning of 2023, analysis by Agence France-Presse (AFP) shows. The missile attacks targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure in particular, AFP said. Russia launched 288 missiles at Ukraine in February, an increase of about 113% compared to 135 missiles in January. Additionally, in February, Russia launched 5,059 long-range drones during its night-time pummelling of Ukrainian cities and towns \u2013 an increase of about 13% percent compared to January. AFP conducted analysis of daily figures provided by the Ukrainian air force.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said changes in Iran brought about by US and Israeli strikes should be \u201cused properly\u201d to benefit the country\u2019s people. Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said Iran had \u201cpredetermined the way it is treated\u201d by supplying attack drones to Russia in Moscow\u2019s four-year-old conflict in Ukraine and had also \u201cfomented wars in the region\u201d. \u201cIt is important that the this chance for changes in Iran be used properly,\u201d he said, adding \u201cThe Iranian people were on their own for a long time, enduring violence while standing against the Iranian regime.\u201d Zelenskyy said on Saturday Moscow had fired more than 57,000<\/a> Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones at Ukraine during the war.<\/p>\n

Belgium has seized an oil tanker believed to form part of the so-called shadow fleet used by Russia to circumvent western sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Special forces assisted by French helicopters boarded the ship in a clandestine operation in the North Sea on Saturday night, Kate Connolly writes<\/a>. Prosecutors said the tanker, identified as the Ethera, was falsely flying the flag of Guinea and was believed to be on its way back to Russia when it was seized in Belgium\u2019s exclusive economic zone.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy praised Belgium\u2019s decision to seize the tanker. \u201cThis particular vessel has long been under US, EU and UK sanctions, but nonetheless continued to illegally transport Russian oil using a false flag and forged documents,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cWe welcome this strong action against Moscow\u2019s floating purse and thank France for supporting the operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two women and a man were injured when drone debris fell on a house in the Russian Black Sea city of Novorossiysk, the local authorities said on Monday. The Russian defence ministry said it had downed 172 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions as well as the Black and Azov seas overnight. That included 67 drones over the Black Sea and 66 over the Krasnodar region, host of a port and naval base at Novorossiysk. The Russian Premier League football match between Sochi and Spartak Moscow was postponed to Monday from Sunday over repeated missile alerts in the Black Sea resort city, league officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Ukrainian experts would provide guidance on intercepting Iranian drones being launched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-453617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}