Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to “be thinking about providing us with weapons,” according to a senior Ukrainian lawmaker.
“Not yet, but we don't exclude it,” the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Oleksandr Merezkho, told the Washington Examiner on Friday. “Recently, there have been some signs that the new government [of] Netanyahu might be more understanding.”Israel has declined to provide military equipment to Ukraine over the last year, in part due to Russia’s military presence in Syria, where Israel routinely conducts military operations against Iranian ground forces.
Russia’s potential to undercut Israeli security from Syria has helped to deter Israeli cooperation with Ukraine, but the burgeoning weapons trade between Russia and Iran, Western officials hope, has weakened that posture. Netanyahu has invoked Iran’s provision of weaponry to Russia to make the case for stiffer Western sanctions on Tehran, while Western officials have continued to press Netanyahu to open Israeli arsenals to Ukraine.
Those conversations reportedly are driving a shift in Israeli policy. Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron that he is open to giving “military things” to Ukraine, an anonymous official told the Times of Israel. “At the same time, he underscored that he could not go too far without provoking Russia,” the report added.
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