“We’ve actually developed a good relationship! Hard to believe, right? From the Oval Office to now,” President Donald Trump stated earlier this month at the NATO Summit meeting in Turkey. Trump was referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he added had “done an amazing job” and is “very effective” in leading his nation’s fight against Russia.

President Trump’s warming to Zelensky is quite the turnaround from a year and a half ago, when the Ukrainian leader was ousted from the notorious meeting in the Oval Office. At the time, a frustrated Trump was convinced, as was nearly everyone else, that Ukraine was slowly losing the war and had no chance of turning things around. He accused Zelensky of being a dictator who had “done a terrible job.”

Now, Trump is singing Zelensky’s praises. His change of tune can be boiled down to one indelible reality: Trump loves a winner.

From Zelensky’s perspective, his relationship with Trump began to change following their meeting at the Vatican last April for Pope Francis’s funeral. As Zelensky put it, that meeting “changed the relations during 15-20 minutes.”

Trump desires to see the war ended and the bloodshed stopped. However, he has concluded that capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands is not actually a recipe for peace. Indeed, it would have paused the immediate fighting, only for Putin to reignite it at a later date.

Furthermore, Trump sees in Zelensky and in Ukraine a steadfast resistance that appears to be legitimately turning the tide of the war.

That can be attributed to Ukraine’s development of its own drone warfare tactics and technology. Ukraine has now become the world’s leading manufacturer of inexpensive military drones, pumping out millions of these weapons. Ukraine’s development of longer-range drones has also allowed its military to strike targets deep within Russia — as far as Siberia.

Just last weekend, Ukraine struck a ship in the Caspian Sea, which Iran claimed was a commercial vessel that killed an Iranian sailor. While Iran complained, warning that it would retaliate against Ukraine, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, retorted, “Iran has no standing to pretend to be a victim, let alone justify its threats with absurd references to the UN Charter.” Sybiha observed that Iran has been sending weapons to Russia from the beginning of the war.

Ironically, it’s thanks to Iran, and the sharing of its relatively inexpensive long-range drone technology with Russia, that Ukraine was motivated to respond and develop its own drone manufacturing programs.

Zelensky has inked deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to provide defensive technologies to counter Iranian drones. Here Zelensky appears to see an opening for a closer relationship with Trump.

If Ukraine chokes Iran’s trade routes with Russia through the Caspian Sea, it will serve U.S. interests to further pressure Tehran into capitulating to Trump’s demands to end its nuclear weapons development programs.

With reports of the diminishing U.S. stockpile of munitions, Ukraine offering to step in to help against Iran would, especially in a defensive measure, become a genuine negotiating tactic against Tehran. It is important to point out here that the US may not be running low on offensive strike weapons, but rather certain high-end weaponry. But even this is misleading, as the U.S. is still well prepared and positioned to maintain its current operations against Iran.

A deal with Ukraine would bring more backing from Europe, which has long supported Ukraine, for Trump’s efforts against Iran. If stopping Iran from supplying Russia helps Ukraine’s war effort, and Iran is more closely tied to the conflict, then European allies may finally recognize the need to support the U.S. effort against Iran.

Either way, getting Tehran to negotiate a genuine peace deal will go a long way in helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia.