While few national leaders were willing to immediately come out in support of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy was an exception. He noted, “The Iranians produce a lot of weapons for Russia, especially drones and missiles, although I don’t think they’ll be able to do that anymore.” Certainly not after the punishing strikes to eliminate Iran’s ability to manufacture and deploy drones and missiles as part of Operation Epic Fury.
Ukraine has endured four long years of war against a ruthless, numerically superior enemy that has targeted civilians, persecuted Christian pastors, and sought to freeze to death Ukrainian society’s most vulnerable by taking out its energy infrastructure amid the brutal winters of Eastern Europe, a tactic Putin has deployed every year since the invasion began. Ukraine has not only endured the war, but also successfully defended key cities, reclaimed previously lost territory, and cultivated the most proficient drone warfare force in the world, both for offensive and defensive purposes.
In the early days of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Iran provided Russia with drones and technical expertise. Now, a mirror image of the conflict embroiling Eastern Europe has manifested itself in the Middle East, whereby the drones first supplied by Iran to Russia to invade Ukraine are now being utilized to attack America and her allies, with American interceptors, long supplied to Ukraine to counter Russian drones, now being used to defend U.S. service members from Iranian Shahed drones. Simultaneously, Ukraine, through painful wartime experience having become superlative at drone warfare, is now sending both interceptors and experts in drone warfare to the Persian Gulf to assist the U.S. in defending against Iranian counterattacks.
Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the foreign relations committee in Ukraine’s parliament, told a reporter, “The U.S. does not view us as allies, but as partners… This gives us a chance to show that we are allies. We are fighting against the same coalition—Iran and Russia.” According to media reports, months ago Ukraine marketed its anti-drone defensive technology to the United States, but Trump officials turned it down. This was a mistake, but there is still time to learn from it, and embrace the advantages Ukraine is willing and able to offer U.S.-led alliances.
There is already ample evidence that Ukraine is firmly on the side of the United States in our civilizational struggle against the authoritarian axis of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the communist states in the Western Hemisphere like Venezuela and Cuba. Ukraine has regularly expressed solidarity with and a desire to join NATO, urged Europeans to rebuild their defenses to take on shared threats, and views the United States as its most important ally.
On the flip side, China is the greatest funder of Russia’s war effort and biggest buyer of Iranian oil. North Korea and Russia have increased military collaboration during the war, and North Koreans have even been deployed by Russia to kill Ukrainians. Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a broad cooperation pact in January providing Iran with additional Russian air defenses. Russian air defenses in Iran, like the Russian air defenses in Venezuela, have notably not been successful in defending against U.S. air power.
Russia has not shied away from verbally supporting Iran during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, either. Last Saturday, Russia condemned the U.S.-Israeli strikes as “a preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent U.N. member state.” And after the military campaign eliminated Ali Khamenei, the Islamist hardliner and supreme leader of Iran, Putin issued a statement offering the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, “unwavering support.” Putin also stated of Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the recently eliminated Khamenei, “Today, as Iran is opposing an armed aggression, your work in this high post will certainly require immense courage and selflessness.” It is a grotesque gesture of support towards a ruthless authoritarian as committed to Islamist repression and terrorism as his father was.
Russian support for the regime during the war has not been limited to words, either. According to media reports based on information provided by unnamed U.S. officials, Russia aided Iran by revealing “information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region.” The officials clarified that the intelligence does not claim that Russia is “directing Iran on what to do with that information.” White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth did not deny the accuracy of the reporting but downplayed its significance on the U.S. mission.
On Monday, President Trump and Putin had a phone call, about which Trump said:
“Putin and Zelenskyy can’t seem to get it together. But I think it was a positive call on that subject, and we obviously talked then about the Middle East. And he wants to be helpful. I said that you could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine-Russia war over with. That would be more help. But we had a very good talk, and he wants to be very constructive.”
No doubt Trump has reason to keep rhetoric about the Russian leader cool. Even so, ending the war in Ukraine will require a clear-eyed recognition of the Russian aggression from which it originated and which has perpetuated it. Putin invaded Ukraine not just to conquer territory, but to eliminate Ukrainian national identity itself. Zelenskyy is attempting to repel Russia while also remaining a key ally of NATO and the United States; while Russia has refused to comply with all U.S. demands for ceasefires, Ukraine has complied with them all. To the extent Putin wants to be “constructive” in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, it’s to constructively help Iran maintain its position as a perpetual threat to U.S. and Israeli interests in the region.
That Putin is not content merely to focus on his own warmongering in Europe but must also make a point of supporting an Islamist theocracy and the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism as it seeks to destroy Israel and kill Americans belies the notion that he is interested in compromise for the sake of peace. To get the “Ukraine-Russia war over with,” Putin can order Russian troops to leave Ukraine, return Ukraine’s prisoners of war, and return the thousands of kidnapped Ukrainian children. But, of course, he will not do so unless compelled to on the battlefield.
Until Putin is convinced that he cannot continue the war at an acceptable cost, he will not stop. Ukraine has gone from a vulnerable nation in need to a formidable, smart, battle-tested ally of the United States. The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is not only about finally bringing to heel a regime that has made itself an enemy of the U.S. since the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, but about pushing back against the Axis of Resistance on as many fronts as possible. The Ukrainian warriors helping to minimize death and destruction among U.S. forces and civilians in Gulf nations deserve our support back in their theater, and, our thanks.