Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks in Munich, Germany, on February 15, 2025.
Sean Gallup Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy began a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to seek support for Kiev, as tensions with Iran escalate and the United States reportedly considers moving military resources to the Middle East.
President Zelenskiy met with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah to discuss rising military tensions in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader said Kiev would hold “important talks” during the trip to provide air defense expertise and drone technology to regional countries reeling from Iranian attacks.
More than 200 Ukrainian experts have been sent to advise Middle Eastern countries on how to thwart an attack that has wreaked havoc on energy infrastructure across the region.
President Zelensky hopes to draw support from Gulf states in Kiev’s war against Russia, which is now in its fifth year and Western military aid faces new uncertainties.
Iran’s Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones have become a staple of modern warfare, and Moscow has used the technology in its years-long invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has had some success in shooting down drones with fighter jet fire, and has recently pioneered the development of inexpensive mass-produced interceptors.
In a speech to the British Parliament on March 17, President Zelensky sought to draw parallels between the Iran war and Kiev’s fight against Russia.
“Working with our partners in the Middle East to build (military) systems like Ukraine’s will allow us to track and analyze attacks from Iran and the Houthis in real time and continue to strengthen our defense capabilities, providing real security for our people, critical infrastructure, and trade routes,” he said.
Zelensky’s visit comes as the Pentagon is considering redirecting equipment and weapons meant for Ukraine to the Middle East as the conflict with Iran strains the United States’ existing ammunition stockpile, the Washington Post reported.
There may be specific operations that (Trump) has in mind, but unless you’re willing to bring in very light forces, it’s going to take a significant amount of time to get those forces on the ground.
Mark Kimmitt
Retired US general and former diplomat
The Trump administration is also considering sending 10,000 more troops to the Middle East, adding to the roughly 5,000 Marines and thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The growing US military presence in the Middle East has raised concerns about a ground attack on Iran, even as both sides maintain conflicting signals regarding the possibility of peace talks. President Trump insisted Thursday that negotiations were progressing well, but Tehran denied direct talks with the United States.
White House press secretary Anna Kelly told CNBC in an emailed statement: “All announcements regarding deployment come from the Department of the Army. As we have said, President Trump always has a full range of military options at his disposal.”
Ukraine also faces new Russian attacks as U.S.-backed peace talks stall, while struggling to secure new commitments from NATO allies to replenish its stockpile of U.S.-made air defense interceptors capable of countering Russia’s high-velocity ballistic missiles.
A crucial 90 billion euro ($104 billion) European Union loan plan for Ukraine has also been called into question after Hungary vetoed the financial aid.
Do you want to run a ground campaign?
Military experts said the scale of the additional troop deployment to the region appears to be consistent with a time-bound, individual operational plan rather than a sustained ground operation.
Former Assistant Secretary of State Mark Kimmitt said Friday that the number of U.S. troops mobilized to the region so far indicates a targeted mission rather than a broader ground war.
“There may be specific operations that[President Trump]has in mind, but unless you’re willing to bring in very light forces, it’s going to take quite a while to get those forces on the ground,” the retired brigadier general told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.
He said a direct ground attack on Tehran would require at least two to three divisions, a force size not currently in the plan or acceptable to the American people.
He suggested that more plausible scenarios target high-risk missions, such as sending paratroopers to Kharg Island, home to much of Iran’s oil exports, or landing marines along the coast to seize control of the Strait of Hormuz.
“There are a number of small tactical operations that could be carried out, but nothing of the strategic importance or operational scale that would indicate a ground invasion,” Kimmitt said.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis estimated Thursday that only 4,000 to 5,000 “trigger pullers,” or ground troops, are deployed to the region.
“I’ve never seen any evidence that a military force of any size has been considered, let alone alerted, prepared, equipped, trained, etc. that would need to be deployed. … That would take months,” Davis, a senior fellow and military expert at Defense Priorities, told CNBC on Thursday.
—CNBC’s Dylan Butts and Sam Meredith contributed to this report.
