Ukraine signs defence pacts with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar as drone diplomacy takes centerstage

By Simran Sodhi

New Delhi, March 29, 2026. The Russia-Ukraine conflict and the ongoing Middle East conflict has brought home the point that the future of warfare has changed and drones spearhead that change. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been going on for almost four years now and despite the Russians being the larger and bigger armed forces, Ukraine has held up. A similar scenario is being played out in the Middle East where the United States and Israel, two of the world’s largest and best equipped armies, have been held up by Iran.

In both conflicts, Ukraine and Iran have relied on the use of low-cost and high accuracy drones to target the enemy. Ukraine which has been fighting this conflict for three and a half years now has also devised cheaper interceptors to destroy these drones. And that technology and know-how is precisely what the Gulf States need today. That is the reason why the Ukrainian President last week visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar to sign defence pacts. Ukraine has proposed swapping its interceptors for the more expensive air-defence missiles that Gulf countries are using to intercept the Iranian drones. Kyiv says it needs more of them to fight back the almost daily Russian missile attacks.

Ukraine’s Drone Diplomacy

During his Gulf tour this last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine has signed a deal with Saudi Arabia to share its drone defence expertise and technology.

“We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives,” he said in a post on X.

Ahead of a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Zelensky posted that the defence deal laid the foundation for future contracts, technological cooperation and investment.

“Saudi Arabia also has capabilities that are of interest to Ukraine, and this cooperation can be mutually beneficial,” the Ukrainian president added.

After signing the deal with Saudi Arabia, the Ukrainian President travelled to the UAE and Qatar where again air defence deals were signed. According to Qatar’s Ministry of Defence, Qatar and Ukraine have signed a defence agreement seeking joint expertise on countering threats from missiles and drones.

Ukraine today has become one of the world’s leading producers of sophisticated and cheap drone interceptors. The country has been under Russian attacks with hundreds of thousands of Iranian drones since the start of the conflict in 2022.

Ukraine is offering the Gulf States a cheap way of countering Iranian drones. Ukraine has been doing this for the past almost four years since Russia has been firing Shahed drones (made in Iran and upgraded by Russia) almost daily at Kyiv. The Gulf States, so far, have relied on using Patriot and THAAD missiles primarily to down Iranian missiles and drones. Each Patriot missile costs almost $4m, while Ukraine is offering its expertise in downing drones for about $2,000 each. The difference in the costs is then a whole story in itself.

Drones and Future Conflicts

For Iran, even in the face of unrelenting bombing by the US and Israel, its secret weapon to fighting back is the cheap and easy to manufacture Shahed drone. Shahed is also easier to launch as compared to ballistic missiles. While drones like Shahed cost between $20,000 to $50,000 to manufacture, the costs of interceptors (to neutralize them in the air) is much higher, a million apiece, as some estimates point out. A simple point here is also that as long as Iran can rely on firing more drones, it can keep a check on which shipping vessels cross the Strait of Hormuz.

In an increasingly globalized worlds, conflicts in one part of the world are getting inextricably linked to other conflicts. The four-day conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025 was another arena where the usage of drones was in full display. India used cost-effective aerial platforms like Harop, Harpy, Nagastra-1, Warmate R, Warmate 3, and ASL drones – into Pakistan’s airspace. India used the Israeli-made Harpy in large numbers during the conflict.

In turn, Pakistan also retaliated by using drones at India. This was probably one of the first illustrations of how modern warfare has changed. The use of these low-cost drones which were primarily used to target the other’s military sites nevertheless also created panic among the civilian populations. Even if the drones are intercepted, the falling debris can also cause considerable damage. Any future India-Pakistan conflict is likely to see a greater use of drones from both sides.

Thus, at this point, it would be a fair assessment to make that future military conflicts will involve a greater use of low-cost drones, probably with some inbuilt features of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Taking a close look at the Russia-Ukraine conflict also then helps one understand how the Gulf States will need to invest in protecting their energy companies from drone attacks in the near future. This protection will mean investing in interceptors and jamming systems. Ukraine ‘s national oil and gas company Naftogaz has spent spending millions of dollars on air defences as Russian drones attack the country and its facilities. It is estimated that around 200 drone experts from Ukraine have travelled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to offer their expertise in countering Iranian drones. The Gulf States had been expecting more of missile attacks by Iran but the hundreds of drones fired by Iran has taken many by surprise.

The global economy has been shaken by the Middle East conflict as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed de facto and by the strikes on their energy facilities. Asian economies like Japan, South Korea and India, who rely heavily on Gulf oil and gas, have been hit quite badly. One way forward would be investing more in technology that helps counter drone attacks by States and non-state actors.

The Future of Warfare

Today, we are witnessing the future of modern warfare where low-cost drones and their interceptions will decide the winners and losers. AI will increasingly play a role in this as the objective is to develop swarms of drones that can chase and hit targets by scanning locations and are controlled by a single operator from afar. As the Middle East conflict rages on, we see Ukraine emerging as a major player as it today boasts of technological know-how that is needed by many of the Gulf States. This also proves that the modern and future wars will determine the winners and losers based on how much technology they have and how effectively they use it.