Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Even as Hezbollah pounds Israeli forces in Lebanon with FPV drones, Ukraine's ambassador to Israel says that the Israeli government has rebuffed offers of help from Ukraine and hasn't extended an invitation for President Volodymr Zelenskyy to visit. ⬇️

https://x.com/EthanLevins2/status/2053382981675356516

2/ In an interview with Israeli news outlet Ynet, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, says that Israel is missing an opportunity to learn from Ukraine's experience in countering weaponised drones.

3/ Hezbollah has recently been using fibre-optic FPV drones against IDF forces in Lebanon. They have become the dominant cause of Israeli casualties. Dozens of soldiers are reported to have been wounded and several killed by Hezbollah drone strikes.

4/ Korniychuk says that Ukraine is "fighting from a different angle against the same axis of evil. Unfortunately, we do not see much interest or appetite from the Israeli leadership in this field. I do not want to speculate about the reasons for that."

5/ He says that he is "very sorry to hear reports about soldiers who were hit by drones, because we suffer from exactly the same thing." He has spoken with many Israelis who he says do not understand why Israel has not made use of Ukraine's anti-drone expertise.

6/ "When meeting people from different parts of Israeli society, I often hear frustration over the fact that Israel is missing an opportunity to save more of its soldiers’ lives."

7/ "Most Israelis support Ukraine and do not understand why Ukrainians are able to deal with drones and Israel is not."

According to news reports, the IDF is trying – so far unsuccessfully – to find its own solutions to the drone threat.

8/ Korniychuk also expressed frustration at the Israeli government's apparent reluctance to invite President Zelenskyy to visit (despite Israeli foreign ministry officials' statements to the contrary).

9/ "As you know, President Zelenskyy recently made several regional visits in the Middle East, mainly to discuss security cooperation and advancing peace. I worked hard to create direct political contact for our leadership."

10/ "However, you cannot come to someone’s home without an invitation."

11/ Zelenskyy himself has said that he thinks "Russia is supporting Iran directly, 100 percent." And yet, "nobody [in Israel] asked me to help," in contrast to the Gulf states, where military cooperation agreements have recently been signed following Iranian drone attacks.

12/ The war in Ukraine has strained relationships between Israel and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, which is widely seen as friendly towards Russia. The Israeli government has consistently refused to provide Ukraine with defensive weaponry.

13/ Netanyahu has boasted of his personal relationship with Putin, describing it as being of "strategic value" for Israel — a statement that caused additional strain for the Israel-Ukraine relationship.

14/ In February 2025, Israel voted with Russia to reject a UN resolution reaffirming Ukraine's territorial integrity. More recently, relations between the two countries have been further strained over Russian deliveries to Israel of grain stolen from occupied Ukrainian territory.

15/ It's likely that the Israeli government is declining to engage with the Ukrainians because it doesn't want to annoy Russia. This doesn't seem to have deterred the Gulf states, despite fierce criticism from Russian sources of their cooperation with Ukraine. /end

Sources:
🔹 ynetnews.com/article/rk1pzs…
🔹 timesofisrael.com/ukraines-envoy…
🔹 timesofisrael.com/pressured-by-t…

Also worth reading:

https://x.com/i/status/2051968031325143219