Ukraine sends military teams to Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia – Zelenskyy
Three groups of Ukrainian military specialists have been sent to three Middle Eastern countries, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, for potential cooperation involving drone supplies in exchange for receiving missiles for air defense systems, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
"Regarding the situation in the Middle East, we have sent our teams. Three professional teams, fully staffed… This week all three will be in three different countries. The first three countries we sent them to, according to our agreements, are Qatar, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia," Zelenskyy said on Tuesday while answering journalists' questions about the details of Ukrainian military missions to the Middle East.
Later, Zelenskyy's communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, responding to journalists' questions about whether Ukrainian experts had also traveled to Jordan, said: "Yes." He later clarified that this concerned a different issue and that a Ukrainian team had gone to a U.S. base in that country.
Zelenskyy said the request from Middle Eastern countries fits into the Drone deal program that Ukraine had previously proposed to the United States.
"First of all, we raise the issue of missiles that are in short supply for us for air defense systems. We are talking about PAC-2 and PAC-3. And in general, you know that even a year ago we proposed the Drone deal to the United States, which consisted of interceptors and not only that – our overall experience, our overall production capabilities in volumes that we are not currently using. That is, we simply do not have the funds to finance all production and all our capacities. We proposed this primarily to the Americans, to our partners. And the fact that the Middle East today has some requests to us is, let’s say, in principle part of the Drone deal. Therefore, the Drone deal for the United States remains absolutely relevant," he said.
According to the president, "the fact that we are now helping Middle Eastern countries with expertise – systematically this proposal was only for the United States."
"I do not know whether they refused this, I am not sure, but it is definitely a postponement, and we have not yet signed the Drone deal. But we are open to it. I would very much like to sign this agreement with the president of the United States. And for our companies it would also be very good," Zelenskyy said.
The president said all American experts "understand that only Ukrainian experience can really help counter massive Shahed drone attacks."
"Even those countries that quietly purchased interceptor drones have already realized that without our military personnel, our operators, without our software and many other nuances, these interceptors simply do not work," he said.
Asked what Ukraine would like to receive besides missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, Zelenskyy replied: "To be honest, we do not want to spread ourselves too thin, so Patriots are our priority. We are talking about different missiles – PAC-2 and PAC-3. We no longer even dream about additional systems [Patriot air defense systems], but if we speak about what else besides missiles – then systems."
