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The United States has turned to Ukraine for help with combat drone technology as it faces mounting drone threats from Iran.
The two countries signed an agreement last week to allow Ukrainian-made drones to be sent to the U.S. for military testing and evaluation, Ukraine's ambassador to Washington told NBC News.
Ukrainian Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna told NBC News the agreement was signed last week, a detail confirmed by a senior U.S. administration official.
She has been meeting with Pentagon officials regarding Ukraine's drone capabilities.
"We are so proud that we have a lot of activity to work with for our technologies," she said.
Stefanishyna said drones came up when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Trump in Washington this week, part of what she described as three in-person meetings and two phone calls between the two leaders over the past month and a half.
She described Ukraine as being in a "winning spot" with momentum on its side.
Trump wrote on social media after the meeting: "Great Honor to meet with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. Many things were discussed."
Three people directly familiar with the U.S. discussions told NBC News there are active talks about incorporating more Ukrainian drone technology into U.S. systems.
"They're trying to figure out who to trust in Ukraine," one person said.
According to NBC News, one source described the Russia-Ukraine and Iran wars as converging around drone defense, saying the U.S. has grown closer to Ukraine partly out of necessity to upgrade its own drone technology to counter Iran, and that Ukraine continuously updates its systems to stay ahead of Russian countermeasures.
NBC News described the development as a striking turnaround, noting that Zelenskyy sat through a contentious Oval Office meeting with Trump in February 2025, after which the administration cut off military assistance and said Ukraine would need to repay all previous U.S. aid.
NBC News said the current shift also reflects a growing U.S. munitions shortage as the war with Iran drags into its sixth month.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and top Democrat on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, told NBC News the U.S. is being "pummeled" by Iran's drone capabilities.
"We're losing American troops. We have our bases and our embassies and civilian facilities for oil and gas and logistics all being struck. The Iranians have proven, as anyone who thought about it hard could have guessed, that their technology can deliver cheap, lethal drones in huge numbers," he said.
One unnamed lawmaker who has held direct conversations with senior Pentagon officials for months told NBC News that "the most constructive conversations" on a potential drone deal with Ukraine had taken place in the two days prior to the report.
During a Tuesday meeting with senators at the Capitol, Zelenskyy was asked whether his government had any hesitation about sharing sensors, technology integration and interceptors with the U.S.
He said Ukraine had been offering for months to share "absolutely anything."
The Pentagon earlier this year announced a "drone dominance" program, a $1.1 billion effort to purchase 300,000 drones aimed at addressing a deficit in U.S. military use of first-person-view drones.
The Pentagon is holding competitions to test drone models, with a second round set for August at Fort Carson, Colorado, involving 19 companies, including six Ukrainian firms.
Travis Metz, the Pentagon official overseeing the program, has told NBC News the U.S. remains far outpaced by Ukraine, which NBC News reported is expected to produce between 6 million and 7 million attack drones this year, roughly 500,000 per month.
NBC News noted the U.S. needs both interceptor drones and detection systems, in part because some drones can fly beneath radar coverage, while cautioning that the Middle East presents a very different operational environment from Eastern Europe, with shorter distances and significantly more water.
A Defense Department official said in a statement, "As Secretary Hegseth has said, drones are central to the future of warfare. This is why we are supercharging drone dominance in this year's $1.5 trillion budget request."
A senior administration official told NBC News that Ukrainian drone companies are coming to the U.S. to sell to the Defense Department, and noted that all companies competing in the Pentagon's drone program are committed to using U.S. materials.
"The president has been clear that the U.S. has the best military technology in the world," the official said, adding, "This is directly in line with the president's policy to unleash American drone dominance and expand the American drone manufacturing base."
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