The Embassy of Ukraine in Israel handed over an official letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country with a request from the Ukrainian side to supply a number of anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems.
Axios writes about this with reference to a copy of this letter and its confirmation by Israeli officials.
Ukraine is asking for the Iron Dome anti-missile system, the Iron Beam short-range anti-aircraft systems, which destroy targets with directed energy and are still at the test stage, the American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, the Indo-Israeli missile systems of the class " surface-to-air" Barak-8, air defense systems "Davidʼs Sling", as well as Arrow Interceptor anti-ballistic missile systems. In addition, Ukraine is asking for the training of Ukrainian operators.
Such a request is justified by the fact that Russia receives drones from Iran and may soon receive Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar surface-to-surface missiles, so Iran will have the opportunity to see its weapons in action and improve them in the future.
According to the Ukrainian side, this will significantly contribute to the strengthening of Iranʼs potential in the production of offensive weapons and, as a result, will increase threats to the security of Israel and the Middle East region as a whole.
- Since February 24, Israel has exclusively provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine in large volumes. On October 13, The New York Times wrote that Israel provides Ukraine with intelligence data on Iranian drones used by the Russian army.
- Israelʼs Minister of Diaspora Affairs Nahman Shai spoke in favor of providing military aid to Ukraine, but Israelʼs Defense Minister Benny Gantz and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu are against it. They insist on the continuation of humanitarian support.
- On October 19, Benny Gantz said that his country would help Ukraine develop a warning system for air defense. He repeated that Israel does not plan to supply Ukrainians with weapons.