Gulf states hit by Iranian Shahed drone attacks during the US bombardment of Iran had no idea how to counter them. Ukraine, which has spent four years perfecting defenses against the exact same weapons, was never consulted.
As "Hvylya" reports, citing the Atlantic's Anne Applebaum speaking on the To The Contrary With Charlie Sykes podcast, the omission exposes a striking gap in Washington's war planning.
"The Gulf states being surprised by Shahed drones, by Iranian drones, and not knowing how to stop them," Applebaum said. "Lots of Ukrainians have pointed out, well, you could have asked us, we've been stopping those kinds of drones which have been aimed at Ukraine for the last four years, we know how to do it, but nobody sought to ask us."
Applebaum described Ukraine as having "the most sophisticated anti-drone army in the world" - a capability built through years of brutal frontline experience against Russian forces deploying Iranian-made weapons. Yet Washington's decision to sideline Kyiv meant this expertise went unused when it mattered most.
The disconnect runs deeper than a single tactical oversight. The US has spent the past year signaling that Ukraine is not a priority. It has refused to clearly ally with Kyiv, excluded it from strategic discussions, and redirected military resources toward the Iran campaign. The result: a war fought without the one country that had already solved the problem Washington's Gulf partners could not.
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