How Ukraine is helping the U.S. defend against Iran's drone attacks

0:00Now, that the Shahed drone threat has arrived in the Middle East, the U.S. and Arab allies formally requested Ukraine's help, and this week, Ukrainian troops have arrived to start training. Nick Schifrin speaks to a Ukrainian official key to that effort. And I'm now joined by the adviser on strategic affairs to Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky, Alexander Commission. Alexander, thanks very much. Welcome. Good to see you again. Herbert Tsukhin. What is Ukraine now providing to the Middle East? Now that it is the Middle East that is facing the threat of Shahed drones as Ukraine has faced for years. Well, this night, we had probably the biggest in our history, the record high, night of the number of Shahids and missiles coming in, and that was 700 plus. So we're going through really complicated days. Even though we got 11 official requests from Middle East countries, 11 requests across the region. And, U.S. as well, to help with deterring Shahids in Middle East.

1:04We get over 60,000 of Shahids for the last year. We learned now to take more than 90% of them down at cheap cost, inefficient way, and that's probably something we would be happy to share with our partners. There's no one way to shoot these drones down. So the Ukrainians that are arriving in the Middle East, will they bring with them the ability to shoot down the drones, to bring down the drones electronically? What are the capabilities that they're going to help teach these countries? That's all types of counter drone solutions. That's EW. Electronic warfare. Yeah. That's sonic acoustic sensors, and that's drone interceptors. All types of them finally give us the capability to take down over 90% of Shahids. How difficult has it been for Ukraine to learn over the years? How to create your own technology to do this on a cheap basis regularly? Well, Nick, last time we met three years ago, I would be not producing much.

2:07Now, we've learned how to produce Zbroa, that's Ukrainian name for weapon. The drone interceptor cost is less than $5,000. The cheapest ones are roughly $2,000. And during the cost of Shahid, because some of them cost from $50,000 to $150,000, that's pretty much efficient. And at this point, the fast relief is sending some assets and some trainers to them. And later, we would be happy to go on with investments, joint procurement, joint production, whatever. Is that Ukraine's long-term goal to get some of this international investment to build up its own capabilities? You know, there is a drone deal in discussion between U.S. administration and my president, Zelensky. And we would be happy if the drone deal's final happens. And we will have joint production of Ukraine and Zbroa in U.S. As part of that drone deal, a senior Ukrainian official tells PBS NewsHour that last August,

3:07President Vladimir Zelensky offered Ukrainian anti-drone technology to help defend the Middle East. The official says the offer received no formal reply. Until Iranian drones started landing in the Gulf 11 days ago. What has been the United States, what has been the Trump administration's role in trying to get some of this Ukrainian technology into the Middle East? At some point, you know, there was a discussion that my president doesn't have cards. You don't have the cards. You're buried there. You're people that die. It looks like the card is already in his hands and looks like the card is called Zbroa. That's Ukraine and weapon. We are happy to show that lessons learned. Has Russia been improving Shahed drone technology that originally of course came from Iran? In order for these Shaheds to be better at evading their defense, have you seen that in Ukraine? And do you know whether that technology has been transferred to Iran?

4:10Indeed, Nick. They made it better in Russia. In the way it was, we have to accept it. And at this point, we know that they share back to Iran not only the technology but also some components. Some drones taken down in the Gulf have Russian components produced in Russia. So finally, it's both way exchange of the technology between Iran and Russia. And finally, is Ukraine worried that with the world's attention on Iran and the Middle East, United States's attention on air defense for its own bases in the Middle East, that Ukraine will get fewer weapons? We are helping to make secure Gulf. And we believe that we will still keep the same support from U.S., from Europe, from all our strategic partners. And we'll get more with helping the Gulf. The axis of evil is working well.

5:10We support each other in a very strong way. I strongly believe that all the allies, all the free world, as I say, will stand together. And with things we learned how to produce in Ukraine, with resources you have, we will make the free world safer. Advisor and strategic affairs president Vlensky, Alexander Kamishin, thank you very much.