He emphasized that 550 Iranian drones have already been used against Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi expects Israel to provide assistance to Ukraine, in particular, air defense equipment.
He said this during The New York Times DealBook Summit, answering questions about negotiations with Israel regarding the provision of military aid to Ukraine.
“I’ve had one conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu since he became Prime Minister of Israel. Again, I mean, became. And what can I say. We look forward to Israel’s support of our state. Of course, we don’t want Netanyahu, like his colleagues who came before him, to balance between Ukraine and Russia in this war,” Zelenskyi said.
He emphasized that 550 Iranian drones have already been used against Ukraine.
“And he (Netanyahu – ) knows this very well, he knows all the details. And he can certainly help with air defense systems. There is nothing here, this is not a weapon that attacks the Russian Federation,” the head of state said.
Yes, he emphasized, there is no need to seek compromises here, because it is about protecting people.
“If he just wants to preserve his personal relations with the relations of President Putin, then he can continue in this direction. And if he wants to preserve the historical relations between Israel and Ukrainian societies, then, it seems to me, we must do everything possible to preserve more people. This is my personal opinion,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine and Israel: what is known
As reported, ex-Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu won the parliamentary elections in Israel, held on November 1, 2022.
Many times Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu, who spent the longest time in history – more than 15 years as the head of the government, promised during the election campaign, if he returns to the prime minister’s chair, to review the issue of supplying weapons to Ukraine – until now, Israel categorically refrains from this. , so as not to annoy Russia
For a long time, Israel refrained from providing military aid to Ukraine, limiting it only to humanitarian aid. The situation began to change when Iran began supplying Russia with combat drones. In October 2022, the Israeli authorities announced that the country would not supply Ukraine with weapons.
Subsequently, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov, stated that Israel would help our country, but would not hand over air defense systems.
Against this background, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Israel to help Ukraine and decide whether the country plans to turn a blind eye to Russian terror.
At the end of November, it became known that Israel does not reject the possibility of supplying Ukraine with high-tech missiles – in the event that Tehran supplies Moscow with ballistic missiles.
