DOHA, Qatar — Russia took satellite images of a U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia three times in the days before Iran attacked the site and wounded American troops, according to a summary of Ukrainian intelligence shared with NBC News by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In an interview in the Gulf nation of Qatar on Saturday, Zelenskyy said he was “100%” confident Russia was sharing such intelligence with Iran to help target U.S. forces across the Middle East.
“I think that it’s in Russia’s interest to help Iranians. And I don’t believe — I know — that they share information,” he said. “Do they help Iranians? Of course. How many percent? One-hundred percent.”
During the interview, Zelenskyy shared a summary of the daily presidential briefing he receives from Ukraine’s spy agencies. The report stated that Russian satellites had taken images of the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 20, March 23 and March 25.
On March 26, Iran attacked the base, which hosts U.S. forces as well as Saudi troops. The strike wounded a number of American service members, two U.S. officials said Friday, though none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
Zelenskyy said that based on Ukraine’s experience, Russia’s repeated photographing of installations over several days is an indication of attack planning.
“We know that if they make images once, they are preparing. If they make images a second time, it’s like a simulation. The third time it means that in one or two days, they will attack,” he said. The briefing did not include evidence of the Russian satellite imagery or specify how Ukraine became aware of it, and NBC News was unable to verify its accuracy.
NBC News reported earlier this month that Russia was providing intelligence to Iran on the location of U.S. forces in the Middle East, citing four sources with knowledge of the matter. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied providing Tehran with intelligence in an interview with French media on Thursday, though he said Moscow has sent military equipment to Iran under their long-standing military alliance.
Zelenskyy toured the Gulf states this week seeking to seal deals providing Ukraine’s battle-tested air defense technologies to nations under fire from Iranian missiles and drones.
He said defense agreements had been signed with Saudi Arabia and Qatar in which Ukraine would provide technical know-how in exchange for “billions” of dollars of investment in Ukrainian defense industries. “They recognize our expertise,” he added. Iran’s low-cost Shahed drones, among the key weapons used to attack Tehran’s neighbors, have been deployed by Russia across its four-year war with Ukraine.
The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has created enormous demand for American-made missile interceptors among U.S. allies in the Middle East, with stockpiles draining after a month of daily attacks from Iran. Zelenskyy said he was concerned that the conflict could lead to U.S. weapons being diverted from Ukraine to the Middle East, but that so far there had been no disruption in scheduled deliveries to Kyiv.
“I’m very worried. I hope that the United States will not make such mistakes,” he said, adding that weapon flows from Western allies were critical to his country’s defense against Russia.
Zelenskyy said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was hoping for a “long war in the Middle East.”
“[Putin] has benefits, a lot of benefits, of this war,” he said, pointing to higher oil prices and the temporary lifting of some U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, which mean more revenue for the Kremlin. “If sanctions are lifted, [Putin] will get more money, much more money, and he will put this money to weapons.”
While U.S. efforts to broker a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia appeared largely stalled before the war in Iran, Zelenskyy said the new conflict in the Middle East had slowed diplomacy even further.
He said he had been told the U.S. mediation team — led by Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law — were not able to conduct negotiations in a neutral venue outside the United States during the Iran war.
The U.S. team had offered to host trilateral negotiations on American soil but the Russian side was unwilling to do so, Zelenskyy said, though Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev has traveled to Florida for past talks with his U.S. counterparts. He added that Ukraine was prepared to meet at any time in any venue except Russia and suggested Turkey or Switzerland as possibilities.
“We will never be the side who is blocking or delaying or postponing, etc. And that’s why we are ready to meet everywhere except Russia and Belarus — they are allies and they are enemies,” he said.
Asked whether he believed Trump cared about the future of Ukraine, Zelenskyy paused for a moment.
“I hope so,” he said. “You know the policy of the United States today. They care about the United States more. It’s understandable, by the way. We understand it and I think that the American team is very open about it.”
Read more on this story at NBCNews.com and watch “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
