US Asks Ukraine for Help Fighting Iranian Drones as Kyiv Weighs Whether to Deploy Its Air Defense Expertise

The United States has asked Ukraine for assistance in countering Iranian drone capabilities, President Zelensky confirmed, in a remarkable geopolitical twist that connects the two major conflicts preoccupying American foreign policy. Ukraine, which has spent years developing expertise in neutralizing the same Iranian-made Shahed drones that Tehran is now deploying against U.S. and Israeli forces, said it will consider the request only if doing so does not deplete its own air defenses. The ask underscores a little-discussed irony of the Iran war: the drones threatening American forces in the Gulf are the same weapons Ukraine has been fighting for years, and Ukraine's hard-won battlefield knowledge may be the most valuable intelligence asset the U.S. can access.