Ukrainian Ambassador Yevhen Korniychuk confirmed that Kyiv is considering suspending the visa-free regime with Israel. During a broadcast on Radio Liberty, he warned that it is not about its abolition, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reports.
“Now, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the question of the expediency of diverting a huge number of our civil servants during military operations to ensure the safety of pilgrims has been raised again. We are not talking about canceling (the visa-free regime – ed.). The issue of suspension was considered. That is, no one was going to cancel the intergovernmental agreement” he said.
According to Korniychuk, about 30,000 pilgrims from Israel are planning to visit the grave of Tzadik Nachman in Uman this year. However, Ukraine cannot protect them from Russian attacks because we lack air defense.
“The embassy insists that if you (Israel – ed.) for some reason do not want to allocate air defense equipment, sell it to protect Ukrainian civilians, maybe you want to protect your own. This is logical,” he said.
The ambassador called the claims that Jerusalem does not want to hand over weapons to Kyiv out of fear that they will fall into Russian hands unfounded.
“It has always been about cooperation in the protection of civilians. And you understand that air defense systems are never placed on the front line. That is, they cannot be captured by the enemy. We are talking about protecting the deep rear,” he added.
