Over 200 Ukrainian military experts in Gulf region to counter Iran's drones More than 200 Ukrainian military experts are in the Gulf region and wider Middle East helping governments in their defence against Iran's drone attacks, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. In an address to dozens of members of the United Kingdom Parliament in London on Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader said 201 Ukrainian anti-drone experts are in the region and another 34 "are ready to deploy". "Our teams are already in the Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and on the way to Kuwait," the Ukrainian leader said. "We are working with several other countries - agreements are already in place. We do not want this terror of the Iranian regime against its neighbours to succeed," he said.

How the US left Ukraine exposed to Russia's winter war Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? Starmer, Zelenskyy urge'focus' on Ukraine as Iran war diverts attention Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London to sign a new defence pact as the unfolding US-Israeli war on Iran threatened to divert international attention away from Russia's attacks on Ukraine. Starmer welcomed Zelenskyy at his official Downing Street residence on Tuesday, reassuring the Ukrainian leader that "the focus must remain on Ukraine", days after the US partially rolled back sanctions against Moscow to cool oil prices sent soaring by its attacks on Iran. "There is obviously a conflict in Iran going on, in the Middle East, but we can't lose focus on what's going on in Ukraine and the need for our support there," said Starmer, who was meeting Zelenskyy to sign a defence partnership aimed at boosting "global defensive capability against the proliferation of low-cost, high-tech military hardware".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to visit Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in the UK on Tuesday to agree a new defence partnership aimed at tackling cheap attack drones. Downing Street said the deal would bring together Ukrainian expertise and the UK's industrial base to manufacture and supply drones and other capabilities. The two leaders are also expected to discuss further support Ukraine against Russia's full-scale invasion, now in its fourth year. Their meeting comes as the US-Israeli war with Iran enters a third week, during which US President Donald Trump has criticised the UK and other countries over the extent of their response to the conflict. Under the partnership between the UK and Ukraine, closer co-operation in the defence industries will also be sought with third countries as part of efforts to bolster international security.

Could Iran be using China's BeiDou system? Ukraine wants money and technology as payback after sending specialists to the Middle East to help down Iranian drones during the ongoing Israel-United States war with Iran . President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on Sunday that three teams were sent to the region to undertake expert assessments and demonstrate how drone defences work as countries in the Middle East continue to be targeted by Iran over hosting US military bases. We are not at war with Iran," Zelenskyy said. Earlier this week, Ukraine's leader announced military teams were sent to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and a US military base in Jordan. But he explained that more long-term drone deals could be negotiated with Gulf countries, and what Kyiv gets in return for its assistance still needs to be established. "For us today, both the technology and the funding are important," Zelenskyy said. Throughout the four-year Russia-Ukraine war, Moscow has widely used Iranian Shahed-136 "suicide" drones, giving Kyiv expertise in knowing how to down the unmanned aerial vehicles through cheap drone interceptors, electronic jamming tools, and anti-aircraft weaponry. However, US President Donald Trump has said he does not need Ukraine's help in taking down Iranian drones attacking American targets. Zelenskyy said he doesn't know why Washington hasn't signed a drone agreement with Kyiv, which it has pushed for months. "I wanted to sign a deal worth about $35bn-50bn," he said. Still, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues with no end in sight, Zelenskyy raised concerns that the ongoing war in the Middle East will impact Kyiv's supplies of air defence missiles. "We would very much not like the United States to step away from the issue of Ukraine because of the Middle East," he told reporters. But as interest has grown for Ukrainian drone interceptors in light of the war, Zelenskyy said Kyiv's rules to buy the drones must be tightened, with foreign countries and firms being unable to bypass the government and talk directly to manufacturers. "Unfortunately, representatives of certain governments or companies want to bypass the Ukrainian state to purchase specific equipment," Zelensky told reporters. "Even in some free countries, we do not initially receive contracts from the private sector.

Trump says Putin may be helping Iran'a bit' US President Donald Trump has said he believes that Vladimir Putin and Russia are helping Iran a bit amid the conflict with the US and Israel. In an interview with Fox News, Trump acknowledged that the US also helps Ukrainian forces as they battle with Russian forces. According to some US media reports, Russia has been sharing the location of US military forces with Iran that could help guide missile and drone attacks across the Middle East. On Thursday, US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff said that Russia's government had assured the Trump administration that it was not providing intelligence to the Iranian government in Tehran. Asked by Fox about the potential of Russian intelligence being shared with Iran, Trump said that I think he [Putin] may be helping them a bit, yeah.

How the US left Ukraine exposed to Russia's winter war Will Europe use frozen Russian assets to fund war? How can Ukraine rebuild China ties? The United States, which stopped providing military and financial assistance to Ukraine under President Donald Trump, has asked for Kyiv's assistance in protecting its bases from Iranian retaliatory strikes in the Gulf. Ukraine's head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, made the request public on March 6. On March 9, Zelenskyy also dispatched chief negotiator Rustem Umerov to sell Ukrainian interceptor drones to Gulf states.

The Download: how AI is used for military targeting, and the Pentagon's war on Claude Plus: an ex-DOGE staffer has been accused of stealing social security data. The US military might use generative AI systems to rank targets and recommend which to strike first, according to a Defense Department official. A list of possible targets could first be fed into a generative AI system that the Pentagon is fielding for classified settings. Humans might then ask the system to analyze the information and prioritize the targets. They would then be responsible for checking and evaluating the results and recommendations. OpenAI's ChatGPT and xAI's Grok could soon be at the center of exactly these sorts of high-stakes military decisions.

British forces based in Iraq shot down two Iranian drones overnight, Defence Secretary John Healey has said. But some drones in the attack hit the coalition base in the Iraqi city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, and injured a number of US troops. There were no British casualties. Brigadier Guy Foden said the base and another in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad were struck a number of times on Wednesday night and British personnel are currently in Erbil helping to defend that base. Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, US bases in Iraq have been targeted in retaliation.

In modern warfare, we must defeat Russia in every technological cycle, the country's defense minister said. Ukraine's four-year war with Russia has made it the world leader in battlefield drone technology. One byproduct of that is that the data it collects has become one of the country's most valuable assets. On Thursday, Ukraine played that card, saying it will begin sharing its battlefield data with allies to train drone AI software. In modern warfare, we must defeat Russia in every technological cycle, Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Telegram (translated from Ukrainian).

The US and Iran are trading blows in the Gulf with a simple drone that costs as little as $50,000 to make. But why is a slow, cheap and relatively primitive drone seeing use in 2026 alongside hypersonic missiles and stealth jets? Iran invented the relatively simple Shahed 136 attack drone, but is now fending off US copies launched against it in combat. Why, when the US military has expensive, cutting-edge and hi-tech weapons, is it making flimsy drones powered by a motorbike engine? Iranian company Shahed Aviation Industries originally designed the 136.