Ukraine’s Zelensky Expects to “Open New Page in Cooperation” with Israel

(Reuters/Hamodia) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday for winning the Israeli election and said he expected to “open a new page in cooperation” with the new government.

“Ukraine and Israel share common values and challenges, which now require effective cooperation,” Zelensky tweeted, but gave no details.

Zelensky has expressed frustration over Israel’s repeated refusals to supply Ukraine with air defense weaponry, specifically the Iron Dome missile system.

Earlier this week, he said that the entry of Iran into the conflict, supplying Russia with military drones, should move Israel to give his country more assistance.

Israel has given Ukraine humanitarian aid and voted to condemn the Russian invasion at the U.N., but has held off on arms transfers lest they antagonize Moscow, with which it already has a tense relationship due to IDF air strikes in Syria.

Prime Minister-Elect Binyamin Netanyahu told USAToday last week that he would “look into” the question of supplying weapons to Ukraine, if reelected.

He also said that “If I become prime minister, that question [of mediation] presumably will come up again.”

Earlier in the war, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to help mediate between Ukraine and Russia, but he made no headway.

Netanyahu met and talked with Putin a number of times and appeared to have good relations with him, hence the expectation that he might be called upon to become personally involved in peacemaking efforts. However, at this stage of the conflict, the two countries seem farther than ever from peace talks, as Ukraine is in a counter-offensive aimed at dislodging Russia from all the captured territories.