Year into war, Ukraine’s envoy looks for Israel to scrap fence-sitting policy

Looking back on a year of war in his home country, Ukraine’s envoy to Israel said that Kyiv sees Israel as an ally, despite publicly expressing disappointment at Israel’s relatively neutral position on the Russian invasion.

“We still believe that Israel is a friendly state,” said Yevhen Korniychuk, speaking to the Times of Israel on February 24, exactly one year after Russian troops began their push into Ukraine’s major cities.

While recent trips by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and two leading Ukraine-born Knesset members to Kyiv were appreciated, Ukraine expects more, said Korniychuk.

“The president made it clear to both delegations that we need to change the policy of the Israeli government and finally start to obtain at least defensive munitions from Israel,” he said.

Ukraine has been asking for Israel to provide its vaunted short- and medium-range missile defence systems, Iron Dome and David’s Sling.

Israel fears providing the defensive weapons will spoil constructive ties with the Kremlin, which could make life difficult for Israeli pilots over Syrian airspace controlled by Moscow and Jews inside Russia.

“We do understand that Israel doesn’t have much in stock now, but the war will happen not to be over, unfortunately, tomorrow,” said Korniychuk. “It’s a long run, and if we will finally agree and start to receive some Israeli defensive equipment in three months, six months, nine months from now, this is okay.”

“But Israel has to be on the right side of history,” he added.

While in Kyiv earlier this month, Cohen announced that Israel would help install a system to warn civilians of incoming Russian missiles within four months.

But Korniychuk said the timeline for the system was simply not good enough.

“Listen, we are in a cruel war now,” he said. “We have been talking about this publicly for six months. This is not something that we are speaking about secretly. We’ve been promised to get it, and we’re still not there.”

The initial deployment will be a pilot that at best will cover a city like Kyiv.

Cohen also said Jerusalem would provide $200 million in loan guarantees to build healthcare and other civilian facilities. Korniychuk said Kyiv would “be happy to use this loan for Israeli defensive equipment”.