The US war with Iran risks leaving Ukraine vulnerable to Vladimir Putin’s forces, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned, as Donald Trump turns his firepower on the Middle Eastern country.
In an exclusive wide-ranging interview with The Independent, the Ukrainian president shared his concerns about the impact of the ever-growing conflict with Iran on his country’s efforts to defend against Russia.
Ukraine could now face a shortage of air defence missiles to protect its cities from attacks, he said, as the US and its allies use hundreds to defend against Iran’s waves of drones and rockets.
“The focus will shift to the Middle East, to the Iranian war now and to the United States and also to Israel,” Zelensky told the World of Trouble podcast.
“This is very understandable, and to the countries in the Middle East, who are now under attacks, massive attacks of drones and missiles from the Iranian side.
“Our estimation, of course, is that air defence [for Ukraine] could decrease.”
Zelensky, who has been a vocal supporter of the latest US-Israeli air campaigns in Iran and called for more support for a popular uprising earlier this year, said he has prepared his commanders to cope with the assumed shortfall in their own defences.
Ukraine’s president was clear that he was not complaining but rather setting out the practical reality his country faces as the war against Iran continues.
There are few defences against incoming ballistic missiles, which are fired in an arc, taking them into space and bringing them down at up to five times the speed of sound. Russia has been using them against Ukraine for four years.
But most anti-missile systems to combat ballistic missile, notably Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Area defence (THAAD) systems, are made in America and are the main defences used across the Gulf region and beyond.
“They’re mostly in the United States, so they produce the air defences and of course they will control this number and they will, I think, try to hold [onto] the package of such missiles. It’s understandable,” Zelensky said.
Kyiv now produces a vast amount of short-range drone interceptors and experts from the country are being rushed to the Gulf to advise on air defences against Iran’s swarms of low-tech attack missiles.
But for its own defence Ukraine has been in contact with supporters around the world who buy weapons from the US to help his country, so far they had not heard back from them about how to meet the coming shortfall.
“My team knows about it and they now already have got the message from me that they have to prepare for such challenges,” he added.
Zelensky also warned of the impact of the Iran war on oil prices, as Tehran has strangled shipping routes through the Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Crude oil prices have surged by almost a fifth since Iran was attacked by Israel and the US.
China buys 48 per cent of Russia’s oil, India buys 38 per cent of it, according to data published this month by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Much of this is delivered to them around international sanctions by a shadow fleet of tankers.
“How Russia uses [the price boom] or not will depend on how our partners will work with the biggest importers,” he said without naming any countries.
The European Union remains Russia’s biggest gas client and many maritime nations have been reluctant to stop and seize shadow oil tankers passing their territory.
“So that’s why we have to work on it,” Zelensky continued. “And we have to work on, again, continue work on sanctions, on shadow fleets, to stop tankers with Russian oil.
He said that he did not expect Russian attacks by drones and other missiles to be affected by the US-Israeli offensive against Iran – which has been a major supplier of Shahed drones for the last four years – because Russia had moved much of its production of the Iranian weapons to its own territory.
Zelensky stressed that he was not critical of the US – always aware that the Trump administration reacts very badly to any criticism.
But he did explain that Putin had not been put under enough military and economic pressure to approach peace talks with any genuine intent.
Last year Zelensky travelled to the White House to persuade Trump to allow the sale of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Europe for use by Ukraine.
His efforts ultimately failed and now Tomahawks are being used in huge numbers now against Iran.
Zelensky said he had seen various estimates of how many had been used against Iran “2,000? I don’t know exactly… in the first two days”.
“You know how many I asked for from the United States? 200, I said or just give us 100.”
He said that Iran had been told by the US in negotiations in which they were told to stop the nuclear programme, stop producing and selling missiles, stop sponsoring terrorism.
“They [the US] said, look, if ‘you’re not ready to stop, one, two, three’. They would face aggressive steps. If you are not ready [to comply], we will answer [with force]”.
“In my case, what I proposed to all the partners was: tell Putin. One, two, three, the same steps, and then [if he does not comply] don’t even help us. Just give us the weapons.”
