An Israeli early warning system for missile attacks began operating in Kyiv this week, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Kornichuk said on Wednesday.
Kornichuk had asked Israel for missile warning systems since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. The previous government promised the system to Ukraine, but the ambassador credited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal involvement in ensuring the project’s quick completion.
Saving people’s lives
“Hopefully they will finalize [the warning system] quickly and we can copy-paste it to all major cities. The Ukrainian government controls six cities with over a million residents and we will definitely be using Israeli technology to help save people’s lives,” the ambassador said.
The system identifies rockets and missiles of all kinds and projects where they will fall, in order to narrow the radius in which residents may be in danger. It also calculates how much time people in that area have to seek shelter.
“This is very important for our civilian and military infrastructure. It is equipment that will allow us to save lives,” Kornichuk stated.
Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff and Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Kornichuk. (credit: Ukrainian Embassy in Israel)Israel is also aiding Ukraine in clearing mines, something that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen brought up in his meetings with EU officials in Brussels this week.
Kornichuk explained that “over the last six months, we have liberated territory twice as large as Israel that is full of mines. Our farmers have been blown up in their tractors.”
Ukraine’s leading expert on clearing mines worked with Israelis in the past in Africa, the ambassador explained, so they do not lack knowledge, but the territory is so large that they need more equipment, especially robots to do the work.
Kornichuk said that he emphasizes in all of his meetings with Israeli officials that, in light of Iran selling arms to Russia, Kyiv and Jerusalem have a “mutual enemy.”
Iranian drones assault Ukraine every day, Kornichuk said, and while his country has had a 90% success rate in shooting them down, the other 10% do substantial damage.
“We need to do more together,” the ambassador said. “[Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky has the political weight to influence European leaders to stop the Iranian nuclear program…and impose more sanctions on Iran.”
“Zelensky has the political weight to influence European leaders to stop the Iranian nuclear program…and impose more sanctions on Iran.”
Ambassador Yevgen Kornichuk
The ambassador made the remarks following a trip to the US, during which he met with the leadership of Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the American Jewish Committee and others.
Some of the organizations agreed to help fund the joint project of Israeli First Lady Michal Herzog and her Ukrainian counterpart Olena Zelenska to adapt Israeli resilience programs to help Ukrainians suffering from post-trauma symptoms.
“There will be a trilateral effort, copying Israeli expertise in post-war trauma to Ukraine with the financial assistance of American Jewish organizations,” the ambassador said.
Kornichuk said that Israel’s connection to the Jewish Diaspora should serve as a model for Ukraine.
“I spoke to our political leadership and said we should collaborate with our diaspora in the US and Canada,” he stated.
Kornichuk expressed surprise that his American Jewish interlocutors were interested in speaking to him about the Israeli government’s judicial reform plan, and asked him his opinion on it as a lawyer.
“I quite unexpectedly heard questions like, why don’t you criticize the Israeli government like the American ambassador does,” he recounted. “I said that I criticize the Israeli government for other things” – such as not providing military aid to Ukraine – “and I don’t want to give them a reason to say I’m intruding on their internal politics.”
Still, Kornichuk said he had the impression that Israel’s judiciary is “independent and well-organized” following the Ukrainian Embassy petitioned the Supreme Court last year against the Interior Ministry requiring Ukrainians to obtain electronic visas to enter Israel, in violation of the visa-free agreement between the countries. The embassy won the case.
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