After deadly Hezbollah strike on base, Ambassador Korniychuk says countries fighting same enemy, touts increased cooperation since Oct. 7 but wishes for more
Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel lamented Monday that Israel had not accepted Kyiv’s past offers to collaborate on countering Iran-made drones, a day after one such drone fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon crashed into a military base,
killing four soldiers and injuring dozens.
Yevgen Korniychuk told the Ynet news site that in February 2023, he had brought to the Prime Minister’s Office the remains of an Iranian drone that Russia had fired at Kyiv, warning that absent cooperation with Ukraine, similar drones would soon come crashing into Israel.
“I don’t want to say now, ‘I told you so,’ but I told you so,” said Korniychuk, who has previously accused Jerusalem of “
close cooperation” with Moscow due to Israel’s refusal to provide Ukraine with certain defensive weapons after Russia invaded in 2022.
“It has long been clear to me that we are fighting the same enemy,” he said, highlighting the close ties between Russia and Iran. “I can say that after the attack on Israel that happened on October 7, [2023], Israel woke up, but there is much more to do.”
Korniychuk said that in the past six months, his country had intercepted between 80 and 90 percent of Iran-made drones, of which Russia fired between 15 and 80 a day during September.