On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran, which had refused to halt its nuclear weapons program. In response to massive airstrikes, Iran attacked NATO military bases and critical infrastructure in neighboring countries — the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia — using drones.
Long before this war in the Middle East, Russia had already started using Iranian “Shahed” drones against Ukraine. The first Shaheds were shot down over Ukraine in the fall of 2022. At that time, NAKO’s research showed that these Iranian-made drones contained microelectronics from the U.S., Japan, Canada, and Switzerland. The types of components varied, but it was clear that they significantly enhanced the overall effectiveness of the Shaheds.
Over the past four years, Iran and Russia have exchanged experience to modify these drones and scale up production. While Russia attacked Ukraine with 120 Shaheds in December 2022, by December 2025 the number exceeded 5,000, according to open-source data.
Both authoritarian regimes gain access to Western technologies despite sanctions, in part through intermediary companies in third countries — including in the Middle East.
“The war you ignore becomes the threat you import. Gulf logistics hubs helped move Western tech into Iranian drones used against Ukraine. Today those drones are hitting the Gulf,” noted NAKO Executive Director Olena Tregub.
This is just one example of military-political cooperation between authoritarian regimes. Yet it shows that deepening such cooperation threatens not only Ukraine or the Middle East — but global security as well.