Israel’s Diplomacy During Russia’s War against Ukraine

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, launched on 24 February 2022, shook the world order and destabilised the security architecture, as well as radically reset bilateral relations of our country with all partners. During thirty years of diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Israel, a solid foundation of bilateral cooperation was laid, because both states were interested in mutually beneficial partnership. For Ukraine, Israel is the starting point in opening the potential of the Middle Eastern region, on the other hand, Israel has always considered Ukraine as a potential ally, and the main attention has always been paid to the large Jewish community in Ukraine. Ukrainian-Israeli relations, which over the past seven years have reached a qualitatively new level, despite the difficult pages of the common history in the context of historical memory, had a fairly good tendency to deepen cooperation in a number of spheres – from agricultural to innovation. However, this relationship were also subject to reset, like all others. This article is an attempt to analyse Israel’s diplomacy towards Ukraine since the beginning of russia’s full-scale war against our state, particularly in the political and practical spheres. The main emphasis is on political support, which consists in the condemnation of aggression and war crimes of the russian federation, and the analysis of Israel’s mediation mission. Considerable attention is paid to the assessment of the humanitarian and defence assistance provided by Israel during almost six months of full-scale war. In addition, the geopolitical priorities of the State of Israel are analysed, in particular in the context of regional cooperation with the russian federation, and the main reasons for Israel’s neutral position in relation to the war in Ukraine are determined. Keywords: Israeli-Ukrainian relations, russia’s war against Ukraine, Middle Eastern neutrality, geopolitical interests, balance of power.