Ukrainian troops launch a reconnaissance drone near Chasiv Yar, Donetsk, on 27 April 2024. [Getty]
A senior Iranian lawmaker threatened to expand the Middle East war into Europe on Saturday after suggesting that Ukraine would now be targeted for allegedly providing military support to Israel.
“By providing drone support to the Israeli regime, failed Ukraine has effectively become involved in the War and, under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, has turned its entire territory into a legitimate target for Iran,” Ebrahim Azizi wrote in a post on X.
Countries across the Middle East are scrambling to acquire Ukraine’s counter-drone technologies in response to daily Iranian attacks.
Ukraine has developed some of the world’s most advanced defences against one-way attack drones during its four-year war with Russia, which has used thousands of Iranian Shahed UAVs to attack the country’s infrastructure.
Ukraine’s military chief said earlier this month that the country’s interceptor drones had downed more than 1,500 UAVs in February alone.
At least 11 countries in the region have asked for assistance in combating the Shahed attacks. Ukraine has dispatched drone advisers to the Gulf states, several of which are in talks to purchase Ukrainian interceptor drones.
A Ukrainian diplomat brushed off Azizi’s threat and noted Russia’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, we have complicated relations with Iran, also due to the supply of Iranian drones and military technology to Russia,” the country’s ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk told Israeli media.
“We are not afraid of this threat from Iran and we are ready to support our partners as much as necessary, including Israel,” he said.
Countries in the Gulf have struggled to cope with the swarms of Shahed drones, many of which have evaded their expensive US-made air defences and struck sensitive targets across the region.
Interceptor drones, which cost only a few thousand dollars to produce, are one of the most efficient ways to defend against cheap unmanned aircraft.
“Ukraine has the greatest experience in the world in countering attack drones,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address this week.
“Without our experience, it will be very difficult for the Gulf region, the entire Middle East, and partners in Europe and America to build strong protection”.
