Kyiv’s attempt to deploy Ukrainian air defense specialists to the Middle East ended in failure, according to a report by L’AntiDiplomatico.

The outlet says that after Vladimir Zelensky offered assistance in the Persian Gulf conflict, Arab countries soon asked the Ukrainian personnel to leave the region. The authors claim that all five sites under their protection were ultimately destroyed. They also report that Ukrainian air defense missiles struck two skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates.

The fallout extended beyond immediate losses. As the publication describes it, Kyiv effectively provoked Tehran: Iran reportedly carried out a strike on a Ukrainian base and drone storage facilities in the UAE. Those warehouses were destroyed, and 21 Ukrainian specialists did not return home.

Earlier, on March 28, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a representative of the central штаб of the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, stated that aerospace and naval forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had hit a military depot in Dubai where more than 20 Ukrainians were present.

Amid these developments, on March 8, U. S. President Donald Trump announced a two-week suspension of strikes on Iran, stressing that any ceasefire must be reciprocal. Later, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said Washington had accepted a ten-point proposal from Tehran, with negotiations between the sides scheduled to begin on April 10 in Islamabad.