Ukraine has some of the world’s best expertise on intercepting Iranian drones — and now wants to capitalize on it.
Donald Trump’s attack on Iran reveals that Ukraine does have some cards to play, after all.
The U.S. president lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year in the White House, telling him: “You don’t have the cards right now.” One year on, Ukraine is holding talks with polite American officials in Kyiv keen to get a look-in on Ukraine’s world-leading anti-drone technology.
“Partners are turning to us, to Ukraine, for help,” Zelenskyy said on Wednesday night. “Requests on this matter have also come from the American side.”
Zelenskyy said he was also talking to Arab nations seeking to upgrade defenses against Iran, such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain. He was clear that Kyiv was seeking to gain strategic leverage from the talks. ___
Zelensky’s goal is to achieve the best outcome for Ukraine and save the country from Russian occupation, not score FU points. If trading interceptors to partners helps Ukraine, Zelensky will do what needs to be done.
But thats my point, there are no gains to be had making a deal with Trump. The man is notorious for refusing to uphold agreements. So its not about FU point and more about not getting caught up in the US bullshit machine.
Back in his youth, my dad worked for a steel manufacturing company that sold materials to building contractors. Some of them were extremely shady and had a reputation for not paying what they owed so those ones were charged literally by the truckload and drivers were instructed not to offload a cargo at the construction site until they’d received confirmation that the load had been paid for. Something like that could work with Trump, I suppose.
Kind of amazing that the United States needs to be treated this way, but here we are.