PERSIAN GULF — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had deployed 200 anti-drone experts to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates last week. Zelenskyy also announced that Ukraine is sending additional anti-drone experts to Kuwait.

The deployment comes as Iran has been firing drones called Shaheds to attack critical energy facilities in the Middle East. Gulf nations had not anticipated the threat posed by Iranian drone swarms attacking energy facilities.

Ukraine has experienced Iranian drone attacks on its energy infrastructure and civilian targets. Russia has been firing Iranian drones against Ukraine's energy infrastructure and civilian targets for years, giving Ukrainian forces extensive experience in defending against these weapons.

Ukraine's military deploys layers of anti-drone defenses, including interceptor missiles and electronic warfare systems, to jam drone navigation and disrupt radio links to operators.

Drones can cost as little as $30,000 while Gulf countries spend millions of dollars on air defense missiles to counter them. American-made missile defense systems such as the Patriot are in short supply.

Ukraine has been requesting more Patriot batteries for several years to defend against Russian missiles. U.S. manufacturing shortages have led European allies to transfer available Patriot batteries among themselves for Ukraine.

British and other European air forces have joined in defending Gulf assets in the Middle East. NATO allies were reluctant to join the United States in securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has responded negatively to a U.S. plan to end the war, according to Iranian state television's English-language broadcaster. Since the start of the war, U.S. military officials compile a daily video update for the President that shows footage of the biggest strikes on Iranian targets from the previous 48 hours.