Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told participants at a Forbes business conference this weekend that Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system will not work in Ukraine, Yahoo! News reported.
Instead, he said, Ukraine needs its own air defense and missile defense system.
“We all know the example of Israel, which protects the sky quite well. We all know the name Iron Dome, but even it does not give 100 percent protection,” he said.
Reznikov’s remarks are diametrically opposed to those of his nation’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, who insisted last Tuesday that Kyiv wants to purchase the Iron Dome air defense system.
Ukraine also wants Israel to send its Spike SR anti-tank guided missile system, via Germany – but Israel has declined.
“From what I know for sure, Americans gave permission for the anti-spike missiles to be transferred from Germany to Ukraine, and Israel said ‘no’,” he told reporters.
Korniychuk accused Israel of placing the war on the back burner, where it is “more comfortable” politically, with Russia controlling the skies over Syria.
“I want the Israeli government to move away from its comfort zone,” he said. “We need Israeli assistance. . . I mean that we need the military-technical support – we need the Iron Dome. . .which will allow us to save our civilian women and children from the shelling of the Russian missiles in our territory.”
Reznikov pointed out that he has been to Israel and has spoken with manufacturers and state enterprises in the defense sector.
“Iron Dome was built [for protection] against slow, low-altitude, low-impact missiles that were basically made in garages. Iron Dome does not protect against cruise and ballistic missiles,” he explained.
Ukraine is already protected, he maintained, with “quite a large number of missiles” shot down, albeit not perfectly.
Russian planes are attacking mostly from the territory of the Russian Federation, Belarus, occupied Crimea, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, Reznikov said, due to their fear of being shot down in the skies over Ukraine.
“There is another air defense system which is being developed in Israel itself and is available in the Czech Republic and the USA. So, we need to develop our air defense/anti-missile defense system, or to obtain one, including from our partners,” he added.
