Israel Agreed To Provide Communications Systems to Ukraine, Zelenskyy Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed in an interview with an Israeli television news magazine that Israel offered to provide Ukraine with advanced communications systems. In his interview with the Uvda (Fact) news magazine on Monday night on Israel’s Channel 12 in Kyiv, Zelenskyy expressed his frustration at the lack of assistance from Israel after requesting it from the last three prime ministers over the last several months, saying: “I don’t understand Israel… I had meetings and I asked so many times, each of them to help us. It doesn’t mean just to give money or military. [It means] to choose the right side,” Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian president also said that he asked the United States to get involved and to pressure Israel to provide military assistance. Israel has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including setting up a field hospital for several weeks.  Israel has refrained from providing military assistance in an effort to walk a fine line between Ukraine and Russia since Israel cooperates with the Russian military in acting in Syria against Iranian militias. Zelenskyy said he hoped the fact that Russia has used drones provided by Iran to mount blistering attacks on Ukraine would finally push Israel to help Ukraine militarily. “We are fighting against Iran each day, 400 attacks of Iranian drones on our people, civilians, infrastructure. We gave information to Israel and we said ‘help us with air defenses’…We can join against this evil on air defense. Israeli military infrastructure or institutions also have drones which also could help us in this attack, in this war,” Zelenskyy said.