Ukraine embassy slams ‘neutrality’ of Netanyahu government: ‘A clear pro-Russian position’

After an ostensible warming of ties under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Kyiv blasts Jerusalem’s recent policies toward Moscow, saying the “so called ‘neutrality’ of Israel government is considered as a clear pro-Russian position.”

In a post to its Facebook page, Ukraine’s embassy in Israel points at “a series of rather controversial events that took place in the first half of 2023.”

The embassy calls Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s February trip to Kyiv “fruitless” and accused Netanyahu of making “entirely fictional and speculative assumptions” in a recent interview, in which he said advanced weaponry was reaching Iranian and Syrian hands.

The embassy statement further lambastes Israel for conducting “two rounds of high-level political negotiations with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

It also decries the deal reached by Israel and Russia earlier this month in which the latter agreed to open an embassy branch office in Jerusalem, while simultaneously settling a land dispute.

Kyiv accuses senior Israeli officials who attended the Russia Day reception in Jerusalem earlier this month of “a blatant disregard for moral boundaries.”

“Furthermore,” says the statement, “the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been dead silent regarding the regular antisemitic statements made by Putin and his minions.”

“While the people of Ukraine, including its substantial Jewish community, are bleeding under the onslaught of Russian missiles and Iranian drones, the Israeli leadership, hiding behind verbal demagoguery about their neutrality (albeit no longer concealing it) actively forges relations with the Russian federation,” reads the embassy statement.

“We urge Israel government to change its position and to support Ukraine with defensive means, to support freedom and democratic world order,” it concludes. “We expect Israel to be on a right side of a history!”

Ukrainian Ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk will be summoned for a reprimand.