Visiting UAE, Zelensky announces defense cooperation with Abu Dhabi amid Iran attacks

Deal follows agreement between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia as Kyiv offers anti-drone expertise to Gulf nations facing Iranian attacks; Tehran targets Abu Dhabi, Omani port in latest strikes

Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to cooperate on defense amid Iran’s drone strikes across the region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

Zelensky’s unannounced visit to the UAE came a day after he announced a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, inked as the Gulf countries face Iranian drones launched by Tehran in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes.

Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help Gulf nations and has deployed anti-drone experts to the region, including to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Zelensky said on social media he had met with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and they “agreed to cooperate in the field of security and defense. Our teams will finalize the details.”

“For all normal states, it is important to ensure stability and protect lives amid today’s threats. Ukraine has relevant expertise in this area,” he said.

Ukraine touts its anti-drone defenses as the best in the world.

This handout picture released by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on March 27, 2026, shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Jeddah. (SAUDI PRESS AGENCY / AFP)

It has proposed swapping its interceptors for vastly more expensive air-defense missiles that Gulf countries are using to down Iranian drones.

Kyiv said it needed more of them to fend off near-daily Russian missile attacks.

“Protection must be sufficient everywhere. That is why we are open to joint work that, in a strategic perspective, will certainly strengthen our peoples and the protection of life in our countries,” Zelensky said on Saturday.

A Ukrainian military instructor demonstrates the operation of an interceptor drone designed to destroy Russian attack drones in the Kyiv region of Ukraine, March 11, 2026. (AP/Efrem Lukatsky)

The agreement came as Iran continued to target Gulf nations over the weekend.

Six people were injured after three fires broke out in Abu Dhabi on Saturday as a result of debris falling from a ballistic missile interception, the emirate’s media office said.

Abu Dhabi authorities were dealing with the fires in the vicinity of Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi, or KEZAD, part of Abu Dhabi’s AD Ports Group, economic cities and free zones.

Additionally, Iran’s military said that it had targeted a US logistics vessel near the Omani port of Salalah, where the Gulf nation’s authorities said one foreign worker was injured.