Russia Helps Iran Attack U.S. and Its Allies. Ukraine Helps Defend Them.

Despite U.S. courtship, Russia is showing its true colors. Moscow has assisted Tehran with drone tactics informed by Russia’s own use of Iranian-designed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against Ukraine, CNN reported on Wednesday. By contrast, Ukraine is proving itself to be a model partner, leveraging battle-tested innovation to help the United States and its Arab allies counter those same Iranian drones.

Russian Support for Iran

Moscow is “not neutral” in the Iran war, as Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrei Kelin recently acknowledged. In addition to helping Tehran improve its drone employment tactics, Russia has been supplying Iran with targeting intelligence on U.S. troops, warships, and aircraft, according to media reports citing U.S. intelligence.

This would not be the first time Moscow has abetted attacks on U.S. interests. In 2024, for example, Russia reportedly provided targeting data to Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen to help the terrorist organization attack ships in the Red Sea. Russian-Iranian ties have deepened since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with the two authoritarian regimes signing a 20-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty last year. After the Israelis decimated Iran’s air defenses in the 12-Day War last year, Moscow struck a deal to provide Tehran with Verba man-portable air defense systems in 2027-2029.

Ukraine Helping Fill Gaps in Counter-Drone Defense

Since February 28, the Islamic Republic has launched over 2,000 one-way attack UAVs targeting U.S. forces and America’s regional allies. While the vast majority have been intercepted, these drones have caused a bigger problem than the Pentagon initially anticipated. The United States and its allies have appeared to lack sufficient point defenses to intercept drones that slip past fighter jets and other air defenses. An Iranian drone strike in Kuwait on March 1 killed seven American servicemembers, while other drones have hit valuable military equipment as well as economic and residential sites.

Ukraine, however, has unparalleled experience in combating the sorts of drones Iran is currently using. Tehran began supplying Shahed one-way attack UAVs to Moscow in August 2022. With Iran’s help, Russia later began producing modified versions of the Shahed in ever greater numbers, churning out an estimated 2,700 per month by mid-2025.

Ukraine has developed cost-effective means of defending against these relatively cheap UAVs. These include mobile fire teams armed with pickup truck-mounted machine guns, coordinated via a digital common operating picture informed by data from multiple sensor types, including distributed networks of acoustic sensors. More recently, Ukraine has leaned on interceptor drones — inexpensive UAVs designed to take down other drones. The Ukrainian Air Force has also had success with the U.S.-supplied APKWS II, an inexpensive counter-drone rocket system.

Ukrainian officials reportedly offered to provide interceptor drones to the United States last August, but Washington did not bite. That calculus appears to have changed. “As of now, there are 11 requests from countries neighboring Iran, European states, and the U.S.,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on March 9. “There is clear interest in Ukraine’s experience in protecting lives, relevant interceptors, electronic warfare systems, and training.”

Zelenskyy says Ukraine has deployed several counter-drone teams to protect U.S. and allied bases in the Middle East. The Ukrainians reportedly have also received U.S. and Gulf interest in procuring their interceptor drones and replicating their acoustic detection network, though that will take time. In addition, the U.S. Army is said to be deploying an interceptor drone system called Merops, which has seen extensive action in Ukraine.

Lifting Oil Restrictions Against Russia Is a Mistake

The war in Iran has made even clearer who America’s friends and foes are. Yet, in an effort to mitigate a spike in oil prices caused by the war, the United States has temporarily loosened sanctions on Russian oil exports to India. The administration has even suggested it may grant similar sanctions waivers to other buyers of Russian oil.

Washington should think twice before doing so. Easing sanctions risks fueling Moscow’s war machine even as Russia tries to help Iran kill Americans.

Dmitriy Shapiro is a research analyst and editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where John Hardie is deputy director of the Russia Program. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Dmitriy on X @dmitriyshapiro. Follow John on X @JohnH105. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.