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Now, that the Shahed drone threat has arrived in the Middle East, the U.S. and Arab
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allies formally requested Ukraine's help, and this week, Ukrainian troops have arrived
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Nick Schifrin speaks to a Ukrainian official key to that effort.
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And I'm now joined by the adviser on strategic affairs to Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky,
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Alexander Commission.
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Alexander, thanks very much.
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Good to see you again.
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What is Ukraine now providing to the Middle East?
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Now that it is the Middle East that is facing the threat of Shahed drones as Ukraine has
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Well, this night, we had probably the biggest in our history, the record high, night of
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the number of Shahids and missiles coming in, and that was 700 plus.
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So we're going through really complicated days.
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Even though we got 11 official requests from Middle East countries, 11 requests across
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And, U.S. as well, to help with deterring Shahids in Middle East.
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We get over 60,000 of Shahids for the last year.
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We learned now to take more than 90% of them down at cheap cost, inefficient way, and
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that's probably something we would be happy to share with our partners.
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There's no one way to shoot these drones down.
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So the Ukrainians that are arriving in the Middle East, will they bring with them the
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ability to shoot down the drones, to bring down the drones electronically?
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What are the capabilities that they're going to help teach these countries?
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That's all types of counter drone solutions.
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That's sonic acoustic sensors, and that's drone interceptors.
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All types of them finally give us the capability to take down over 90% of Shahids.
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How difficult has it been for Ukraine to learn over the years?
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How to create your own technology to do this on a cheap basis regularly?
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Well, Nick, last time we met three years ago, I would be not producing much.
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Now, we've learned how to produce Zbroa, that's Ukrainian name for weapon.
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The drone interceptor cost is less than $5,000.
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The cheapest ones are roughly $2,000.
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And during the cost of Shahid, because some of them cost from $50,000 to $150,000, that's
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pretty much efficient.
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And at this point, the fast relief is sending some assets and some trainers to them.
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And later, we would be happy to go on with investments, joint procurement, joint production,
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Is that Ukraine's long-term goal to get some of this international investment to build
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up its own capabilities?
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You know, there is a drone deal in discussion between U.S. administration and my president,
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And we would be happy if the drone deal's final happens.
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And we will have joint production of Ukraine and Zbroa in U.S.
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As part of that drone deal, a senior Ukrainian official tells PBS NewsHour that last August,
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President Vladimir Zelensky offered Ukrainian anti-drone technology to help defend the Middle
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The official says the offer received no formal reply.
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Until Iranian drones started landing in the Gulf 11 days ago.
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What has been the United States, what has been the Trump administration's role in trying
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to get some of this Ukrainian technology into the Middle East?
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At some point, you know, there was a discussion that my president doesn't have cards.
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You don't have the cards.
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You're buried there.
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You're people that die.
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It looks like the card is already in his hands and looks like the card is called Zbroa.
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That's Ukraine and weapon.
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We are happy to show that lessons learned.
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Has Russia been improving Shahed drone technology that originally of course came from Iran?
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In order for these Shaheds to be better at evading their defense, have you seen that in Ukraine?
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And do you know whether that technology has been transferred to Iran?
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They made it better in Russia.
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In the way it was, we have to accept it.
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And at this point, we know that they share back to Iran not only the technology but also
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Some drones taken down in the Gulf have Russian components produced in Russia.
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So finally, it's both way exchange of the technology between Iran and Russia.
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And finally, is Ukraine worried that with the world's attention on Iran and the Middle
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East, United States's attention on air defense for its own bases in the Middle East,
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that Ukraine will get fewer weapons?
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We are helping to make secure Gulf.
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And we believe that we will still keep the same support from U.S., from Europe, from all
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our strategic partners.
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And we'll get more with helping the Gulf.
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The axis of evil is working well.
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We support each other in a very strong way.
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I strongly believe that all the allies, all the free world, as I say, will stand together.
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And with things we learned how to produce in Ukraine, with resources you have, we will
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make the free world safer.
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Advisor and strategic affairs president Vlensky, Alexander Kamishin, thank you very