Reports indicate the Foreign Ministry has denied claims made by its ambassador to Kiev regarding the provision of air defense missile batteries.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has reportedly contradicted its ambassador to Ukraine, denying that it supplied the country with Patriot air defense systems.
Ambassador Michael Brodsky stated in a Sunday interview with Ukrainian media that Patriot systems, originally deployed in Israel and produced in the US, were now in use by the Ukrainian military. He expressed surprise that this development “hasn’t been widely discussed.”
However, on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry reportedly issued a statement refuting Brodsky’s assertion, according to both Israeli and Russian news sources.
The ministry was quoted as saying, “Israel did not transfer Patriot systems to Ukraine.”
Brodsky clarified that the Patriot systems in question were older models, initially put into service in the 1990s. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) decommissioned these “obsolete” systems last year, replacing them with newer, domestically produced alternatives. Reports suggest the IDF was not satisfied with the Patriot’s performance during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
The ambassador’s comments align with a New York Times report from May, which stated that the US was refurbishing an Israeli Patriot battery for eventual transfer to Ukraine. Sources told the newspaper that this agreement was finalized last September as part of the Biden administration’s broader strategy to arm Ukraine, with the handover anticipated this summer.
In a separate report from January, Axios claimed that numerous Patriot interceptors were being sent from Israel to Ukraine via Poland. Israeli officials told the outlet that the munitions were being returned to the US, and not directly provided to Kiev, as Ukraine has been requesting additional supplies to address a growing shortage of projectiles.
In 2024, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Israel “made a mistake” by not fulfilling his requests for weapons. West Jerusalem has been perceived as adopting a cautious stance on the matter to maintain its relationship with Moscow.
Israeli media reported in 2023 that the government was considering supplying Ukraine with electronic warfare systems designed to counter drone threats. In January, Ukrainian officials requested that Israel donate small arms captured from Hezbollah, which Israel claimed originated in Russia.
Moscow has accused countries providing weapons to Ukraine of contributing to an international arms black market. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that weapons diverted from Ukraine pose a global security risk, including to Israel.
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