Israel provides aid to Ukraine, but military – with caution – ambassador

Israel has made a strategic decision to provide assistance to Ukraine, but it has to exercise caution when providing military assistance, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Ukraine Michael Brodsky said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

“Israel, unfortunately, is located in a dysfunctional region. It is such a tinderbox, on top of which Israel sits. The security threats to Israel, the threats to the lives of both Israeli soldiers and Israeli citizens, are enormous. Ukraine today is facing a very powerful adversary, a superpower, Israel has a different situation in this sense, different threats, but nevertheless, this is also a serious war, the war on terror, which requires maximum resources, maximum mobilization of society. For these reasons, and because of the sensitive relationship that we have with Russia, we think first of all about our own interests and have to be careful,” he said.

“This does not mean that we do not help Ukraine. From the first day, we made a strategic decision to provide the maximum amount of assistance to Ukraine that we can afford. Without crossing the ‘red lines’ and without endangering our national interests. Without endangering the lives of ordinary Israelis,” he said.

The ambassador said “hundreds of tonnes of humanitarian aid that we have delivered – medicine, food, fresh water, generators, desalination plants. This is a field hospital, which is located in Lviv region, and during the stay of Israeli doctors there, they provided assistance to 6,000 Ukrainians – refugees and local residents.

In addition, he said, “dozens of people who were brought to Israel for treatment. These are children from Ohmatdyt hospital with oncological diseases. These are patients who were in the Israeli field hospital, who then it was decided to transfer to Israel and continue their treatment there.”

According to Brodsky, “the health sector is the area in which Israel should actively help Ukraine after the war too. It will be necessary to restore the entire infrastructure, including healthcare. I think it will be right that it is Israel that will contribute to the creation of a new, modern health system in Ukraine.”