Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Bahrain on Monday for talks focused on "security cooperation," according to a source within the Ukrainian delegation.
Zelensky's Bahrain visit signals that Ukraine is actively leveraging its war experience to build new partnerships © X
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Bahrain on Monday for talks focused on "security cooperation," according to a source within the Ukrainian delegation.
"We have landed. The objective of the visit is security cooperation," the source said, without providing further detail.
The visit takes place against a significant backdrop. Since the outbreak of the conflict triggered by the joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February, several Gulf states have reportedly turned to Ukraine for assistance in intercepting Iranian drones and missiles fired at their territories — according to Kyiv.
The approach is far from surprising. Ukraine has accumulated unparalleled real-world experience in countering Iranian-made drone and missile attacks since Russia began deploying Shahed drones against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
That battlefield knowledge, covering detection, jamming, interception tactics and damage mitigation — has become one of Ukraine's most valuable strategic assets on the international stage.
For Gulf states absorbing Iranian strikes, Kyiv's expertise represents a practical and politically neutral source of assistance, one that carries no ideological baggage and comes with hard-won operational credibility.
Zelensky's Bahrain visit signals that Ukraine is actively leveraging its war experience to build new partnerships, turning the tragedy of its own conflict into a source of strategic influence at a moment when the Middle East's security architecture is being fundamentally redrawn.
More than 1.5 million Muslim pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj, a figure that already exceeds last year's foreign arrivals, with the pilgrimage itself not beginning until Monday.
The Turkish intelligence agency MIT captured 10 suspected Islamic State militants in Syria and brought them back to Turkey, the Anadolu news agency on Saturday cited security sources as saying.
There is a "50-50 chance" of a U.S.-Iran peace agreement, the United Arab Emirates' presidential advisor said on Friday, but stressed that any political settlement must address the root causes of instability in the region to avoid future conflict.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.
