A new round of US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine planned for this week has been postponed because of war in the Middle East, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Meanwhile, the United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Kyiv’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones.
Russia has fired tens of thousands of Shaheds at Ukraine since it invaded its neighbour just over four years ago, Zelenskiy said.
Iran has responded with the same type of drones to joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets.
Ukraine has pioneered the development of cut-price drone killers, rewriting the air defence rule book and making other countries take notice.
The Iran war has drawn international attention away from Europe’s biggest conflict since the second World War.
Western governments and analysts say the Russia-Ukraine war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, while there is no sign that year-long US-led peace efforts will stop the fighting any time soon.
“Right now, because of the situation around Iran, there are not yet the necessary signals for a trilateral meeting,” Zelenskiy said.
“But as soon as the security situation and the overall political context allow us to resume that trilateral diplomatic work, it will be done.”
Various countries, including the United States, had approached Ukraine for help in defending against Iranian drones, Zelenskiy said.
[ If Putin was wrong to invade Ukraine, Trump is wrong to invade IranOpens in new window ]
He said he had spoken in recent days with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible co-operation.
Ukrainian assistance, he said, would be provided only if it did not weaken Ukraine’s own defences and if it added leverage to Kyiv’s diplomatic efforts to stop the Russian invasion.
“We help to defend from war those who help us, Ukraine, bring a just end to the war” with Russia, Zelenskiy said.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said before chairing a meeting of EU and Gulf foreign ministers via video-link on Thursday that the talks would look at how Ukraine’s experience can help countries counter Iranian drones.
Ukraine’s army has recently pushed back Russian forces at some points along the roughly 1,250km front line, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Localised Ukrainian counterattacks liberated more territory than Ukrainian forces lost in the last two weeks of February, the Washington-based think tank said this week, estimating the recovered land at about 257 square kilometres since January 1st.
Zelenskiy, meanwhile, taunted Hungarian leader Viktor Orban on Thursday for blocking a €90 billion aid package from the European Union critical to Kyiv’s survival as it fends off Russia.
Ukraine relies on financial aid from partners to cover its budgetary needs while it funnels most state funds toward defence. EU member Hungary, which has maintained cordial ties with Moscow, vetoed the package this month amid a dispute over oil supplies.
“We hope a certain person in the EU will not keep blocking the 90 billion ... and Ukrainian soldiers will have weapons,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv.
“Otherwise, we will give the address of this person to our armed forces, our guys. Let them call him, speak with him in their own language.”
The remark will likely heighten the tension between the two leaders during Russia’s four-year war on Ukraine, which Orban – who faces elections on April 12th- has been careful not to condemn.
Hungary’s veto of the aid package, as well as new EU sanctions on Russia, came in response to what it says was Ukraine deliberately cutting supplies from the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian crude to Europe.
Kyiv says the oil flows stopped after a Russian attack on pipeline infrastructure in January and it is fixing the damage as fast as it can. Zelenskiy said on Thursday the Soviet-era pipeline could be operational within a month and a half.
“They [the Russians] are killing us, and we’re supposed to give poor little Orban oil, because without it he won’t win elections?” he said.
Orban has made the Ukraine war a focal point in his campaign for re-election. – AP and Reuters
