Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed "historic" defence agreements signed with Middle Eastern countries last week on a visit to the region.
Ukraine signed defence agreements with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates last week.
The contents of the deals have not been made public, but Zelensky has said they include Ukrainian expertise in downing drones, a pressing need as Iranian strikes target Gulf countries in the Middle East war.
"I believe these are historic agreements. We are reaching understanding on strategic cooperation in the military technology area and in other areas. We are talking about 10-year agreements," Zelensky told reporters.
Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help the Gulf nations, which are being attacked with the same Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia fires on Ukraine.
Ukraine has proposed swapping its relatively cheap drone interceptors for the expensive air-defence missiles that the Gulf is currently using to down Iranian drones.
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Easter ceasefire
Some of Ukraine's allies have sent Kyiv "signals" about the possibility of scaling back its long-range strikes on Russia's oil sector amid a spike in global energy prices, Zelensky said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in a WhatsApp chat, he added that Ukraine was ready to reciprocate if Russia stops attacking the Ukrainian energy system, and that Kyiv is open to an Easter ceasefire.
"Recently, following such a severe global energy crisis, we have indeed received signals from some of our partners about how to reduce our responses in the oil sector and the energy sector of the Russian Federation," Zelensky said in a WhatsApp briefing with journalists.
The US-Israeli war on Iran has squeezed international supplies of oil, gas and refined products, sending prices soaring. Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure have already left it scrambling for supplies.
Zelensky said at the weekend that he had reached a deal with some countries during his visit to the Middle East on diesel deliveries for a year to Ukraine, without providing further details. Diesel is vital for the functioning of the Ukrainian armed forces and for the country's agricultural sector, the bedrock of the economy.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
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