Zelensky Asks to Address Knesset

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked to address the Knesset in a bid to elicit stronger support from Israel in the war with Russia, according to media reports.

Zelensky would speak to the Israeli lawmakers from Kyiv via videoconference, as he has done with the European Union and British parliaments in recent days.

However, Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy reportedly told Zelensky that it wouldn’t be possible, since the MKs go on a two-month recess starting Thursday.

Any special session would also be problematic. “Unfortunately the Knesset will also be going through renovations so physically it’ll be impossible to convene everyone back here,” a source close to Levy said.

Other solutions are being explored, such as a Zoom conference without MKs gathered in the Knesset plenum.

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian parliamentarian said Wednesday that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow is “not realistic,” however well-intentioned.

Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation, who has been involved in negotiations with Putin, told Ynet that what his country needs most from Israel is weaponry, not diplomacy.

“I think it is a good move,” Merezhko said of Bennett’s diplomacy “We are in favor of such efforts.”

“But,” he added, “at the present time it isn’t realistic. Putin is not serious about holding negotiations. Any negotiations should start with a ceasefire and Putin doesn’t do [that].

“He is using this process of negotiations only to cover regrouping of his forces, to cover his attacks of civilian populations,” Merezhko said.

Merezhko’s comments came after reports on Tuesday quoting Israeli officials who claimed that Russia and Ukraine are in a “critical juncture” in negotiations, that both sides are beginning to yield, and a ceasefire could soon be attainable.

Officially, Moscow has said it will pull back troops immediately if Ukraine stops fighting, recognizes Crimea as Russian, passes legislation committing it to neutrality, which would keep it out of NATO, and recognizes the separatist areas of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent.

Merezhko called these “absurd demands” for the “surrender of Ukraine” and said Kyiv’s government will never recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea, carried out in 2014.

In the meantime, he said he hoped Israel would provide Ukraine with the means to repel the invaders.

Also on Wednesday, a member of the Haifa city council filed a request to change the name of Haparsim Street, where the Russian Consulate is located, to “Zelensky Street,” according to The Times of Israel.

“The president did not abandon his people in this difficult moment when he could have saved himself and his family. Instead, he has led the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people,” Kirill Karetnik wrote in a letter requesting the change.

Haifa is the sister city of Odessa.