President Volodymyr Zelensky has wrapped up a Middle East tour aimed at assembling a regional alliance that can counter Russia across the Black Sea and Mediterranean, capping the trip with a surprise flight to Damascus aboard a Turkish state plane.
Zelensky's trilateral meeting with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan produced agreements to deepen defense and energy cooperation, Politico reported in an analysis picked up by "Hvylya". The pivot comes as Kyiv's alliance with the United States under President Donald Trump has faltered and U.S.-led talks with Moscow have drifted.
"Ukraine-Syria-Turkey triangle is a very important alliance that can guarantee stability between Black and Mediterranean seas," Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, said at a briefing on Wednesday. "A safe link between Europe, Black Sea region, and the Middle East. Together three of us can achieve a lot."
Zelensky described his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as "one of the most positive in all these years," announcing new steps in security cooperation on April 4. The two leaders also agreed to develop gas fields and energy infrastructure, and Erdogan offered Istanbul as the venue for revived peace talks with Russia - a familiar Ankara move that echoes its quiet push against Russian influence in other theaters.
Syria offers a different kind of prize. After the overthrow of the pro-Russian regime of Bashar al-Assad, who now lives in exile in Moscow, Kyiv sees a shattered but strategically placed country open to Ukrainian expertise in energy, defense and logistics. The Gulf leg of Zelensky's tour produced separate defense deals, with Kyiv offering its battlefield experience against Iranian Shahed drones in exchange for diplomatic weight.
Russia's war is forcing Ankara to reconsider how much of the Black Sea it can afford Moscow to control, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Now, Turkey can count on having a large bloc that can counter the Russian presence around the sea," he said. Zelensky has laid out the security calculations behind the Middle East pivot in recent days, framing the outreach as a hedge against a retreat by his biggest backer.