Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine now has “cards” after the United States asked Kyiv to help protect American military bases in the Middle East from Iranian drones.

Axar.az informs, citing Kyiv Post, speaking in an interview with Irish blogger Caolan Robertson, Zelensky was asked whether Ukraine now has leverage in negotiations.

“Do you think Ukraine has the cards now?” the interviewer asked. “I don’t know, you tell me,” Zelensky replied. “I think yes. But I think that we had them.”

“It’s like a good player,” he continued. “You can have good cards, but it’s not important to show everybody that you have these cards.”

“I think that a year ago we had them. I didn’t show them. But now everybody understands that we have,” he said.