Drone diplomacy wins Ukraine valuable allies, but now it must deliver

KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has leveraged Ukraine’s expertise in drone warfare into a series of successful diplomatic deals during visits to the Middle East and Europe, showcasing how Kyiv is using military prowess to boost its diplomatic clout.Since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Zelenskiy has sought to strengthen Kyiv’s alliances, both with Western allies and with countries of the “global south,” to restrict Russia’s diplomatic sway.The Iran war has confirmed how central drones are to modern warfare and handed Zelenskiy a diplomatic trump card at a time when U.S. support for Kyiv appears unreliable, analysts say.During the war, Ukraine has invented cheap and highly effective ways to counter drone attacks instead of relying only on state-of-the-art defensive missile systems such as the costly U.S. Patriot, used by the U.S. in the Gulf. Kyiv has also developed long-range attack drone capabilities to hit Russian energy infrastructure.This month alone, Ukraine signed defense and drone deals in Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, following long-term security partnerships with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in late March. Zelenskiy has in recent weeks also agreed security cooperation with Turkey and Syria, and signed agreements at the weekend with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on defense and energy.“Zelenskiy is really trying hard to show that Ukraine is an asset and not a liability and that it has an answer to the changing nature of war,” said Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “Ukraine now needs to organize itself to actually deliver.”Export obstaclesUkraine’s drone manufacturers say they have significant spare capacity, but the government has approved only a handful of defense export licenses.Ukraine has begun drone manufacturing overseas, including in Germany and Britain, but that production is earmarked for its own military needs. “In Ukraine, the choke point is the export control: b