Ukrainian ambassador: Israel is missing an opportunity to benefit from Kyiv’s experience against drones
Ukraine’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, Yevhen Korniychuk, said on Monday that Israel is missing an opportunity to save the lives of its soldiers.
Korniychuk’s remarks came in response to the heavy losses suffered by the Israeli army as a result of Hezbollah’s booby-trapped drones.
He added, in an interview with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, that Israel didn’t benefit from Ukraine’s experience in its war with Russia, especially regarding how to counter booby-trapped drones.
He questioned why Israel hadn’t taken advantage of the extensive experience his country had gained during the long war with Russia.
The Ukrainian ambassador said: “We see little interest or serious desire on the part of the Israeli leadership in this matter… I don’t want to speculate on the reasons for this… I often hear resentment about Israel missing the opportunity to save more of its soldiers’ lives”.
He continued, “Most Israelis support Ukraine and don’t understand why Ukraine can deal with drones while Israel cannot”.
The drones that Hezbollah uses, which rely on fiber optic technology, are causing increasing concern in Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously describing them as a major threat due to the difficulty in detecting them, and calling on the army to find ways to counter them.
These drones rely on a thin fiber optic strand that gradually unwinds from a reel attached to them during flight, allowing commands and images to be transmitted directly via this strand, rather than through radio waves that are susceptible to interference.
They also don’t require GPS or radio signals, resulting in a low footprint and making them difficult to detect.
Hezbollah’s operations come amid an ongoing Israeli offensive on southern Lebanon that includes heavy artillery shelling, house demolitions, and evacuation warnings in several towns, despite a fragile ceasefire in place since April 17.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Israel’s remarks come in the wake of a recent crisis between the two countries over Tel Aviv’s reception of Russian ships carrying grain that Kyiv says was “stolen from its territory”.
The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot quoted the Israeli Grain Importers Association on April 30 as announcing that the grain import company Tzansever had been forced to refuse to receive a Russian cargo ship that Kyiv had asked Israel to detain, claiming that it was carrying Ukrainian grain looted from the occupied territories and heading towards Haifa.
The issue caused an exchange of accusations between Israeli and Ukrainian officials, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Kyiv and Tel Aviv.
Israel received and unloaded at least four Russian ships during the current year (2026), which it said were carrying grain stolen from Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced via X, that Tel Aviv’s ambassador to Kyiv, Mikhail Brodsky, had been summoned for a reprimand session, after Israel received a Russian grain ship.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to his Ukrainian counterpart, also via X, saying: “One would expect a legal request to be submitted before tweeting, but you chose otherwise, for your own reasons,” without elaborating.
He continued: “We cannot verify the Ukrainian claims, and up to this moment, Kyiv hasn’t submitted a request for legal assistance, but has merely posted tweets, and the Ukrainian government hasn’t provided any evidence for its claims”.
