The Times of Israel reports: “For the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel has authorized the sale of defensive military equipment to Kyiv, a report said Thursday. According to the Walla news site, which cited three Israeli and Ukrainian officials, Jerusalem approved export licenses for two Israeli companies to sell electronic warfare systems with a range of some 40 kilometers (25 miles) that could be used to defend against drone attacks.”
“The report said that the export licenses were approved by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in mid-February. Cohen then informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of the decision during his visit in Kyiv. A Ukrainian official told Walla that while the country was pleased with the development, it was still pressing Israel to supply anti-missile systems, saying: “On that, we have a gap that we are not managing to solve.”
If these reports are confirmed this will be an important development, given Israel’s wide-ranging capabilities in C-UAS technology, though Israeli officials were reported as saying that the approval of the export licenses was not a shift in policy because the systems are defensive in nature and do not use any live fire that can kill Russian soldiers.
“However, one senior Israeli official told Walla that one of the reasons Israel approved the licenses was to possibly see how the defense systems perform against Iranian drones,” says the Times of Israel report.
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(Image: Shutterstock – Military tactical drones kamikaze shahed-136 (geranium-2))
