Midway through last year, the Trump administration reportedly brushed off an offer from Ukraine for assistance in strengthening defense systems against a lethal, widely used Iranian drone.
Now, with Iranian drones having killed multiple US troops, American officials consider ignoring the initial outreach a major misstep.
“If there’s a tactical error or a mistake we made leading up to this [war in Iran], this was it,” a US official told Axios.
Last August, Ukrainian officials reportedly tried to sell the U.S. battle-proven technology to take on Iran’s low-cost, unnamed, one-way Shahed attack drones, which Russia has made a major part of its arsenal for the war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians reportedly made the pitch during a closed-door meeting at the White House on August 18, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered interceptor drones to Trump as a way to strengthen ties. The offer reportedly even concluded a PowerPoint presentation with slides talking about how the drones could be a threat across the Middle East during a then-hypothetical war with Iran.
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The president reportedly asked his team to look into the offer from Ukraine, but the proposal didn’t in the months that followed, with some elements in the Trump administration reportedly believing Zelensky was grandstanding.
Months before the reported August meeting, an Oval Office sit-down between Trump and Zelensky descended into a tense argument that the Ukrainian leader wasn’t grateful enough for US help, all in front of news cameras.
“Iranian retaliatory attacks are down by 90 percent because their ballistic missile capabilities are being totally demolished,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The Independent. “This characterization made by these cowardly unnamed sources is not accurate and proves that they are simply outside looking in. Secretary Hegseth and the armed forces did an incredible job planning for all possible responses by the Iranian regime, and the undisputed success of Operation Epic Fury speaks for itself.”
The tables have turned now that the US is under threat from Iran’s Shaheds directly, with Ukraine’s counter-drone technology a far more economical way to stop the unmanned aircraft than many of the high-priced, conventional air defense systems across US and allied bases in the Middle East.
Military leaders reportedly briefed lawmakers last week that the Iranian drones have been a larger-than-expected challenge, as US air defenses can’t stop all of them.
The US has reached out to Zelensky for assistance, according to the Ukrainian leader, and he says his country has sent drones and experts to help protect US bases in Jordan.
Publicly, Ukraine has appealed to allied countries for more US-made Patriot missiles.
Separately, the US has also introduced its so-called Lucas drones to the battlefield, modeled after low-cost Iranian Shaheds.
The president’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are reportedly backing a Florida-based drone company that could supply the military.
Despite challenges with Iranian drones, the US maintains that it has crippled much of Iran’s military and the increasingly unpopular war will end soon, though the president and his team have remained vague about the details.
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