Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke with his Ukrainian Counterpart Oleksii Reznikov for the first time on Wednesday, focusing on the Iranian threat to both countries.
Gallant emphasized the global threat of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Defense Ministry stated.
Russia has been using Iran-made drones against Ukraine since last year.
Reznikov updated Gallant on developments in the war, and later expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Israel sent humanitarian aid but no military aid
The ministers also discussed the Israeli missile warning system being installed in Kyiv and agreed to stay in touch.
The phone call came after Gallant met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin last week, and Austin asked him to speak with Reznikov.
Jerusalem has sent humanitarian aid and missile warning systems to Kyiv, but has not sent military aid or allowed other countries to send Israeli weapons to Ukraine. The reticence to send weapons to Ukraine is due to the deconfliction mechanism between Israel and Russia, meant to allow the IDF to attack Iranian positions near Israel’s northern border without striking the Russian Army, which maintains a presence in Syria.
UK Ambassador Neil Wigan said that Israel should help Ukraine more in light of Russia using Iran-made weapons.
“Iran’s links with Russia threaten Israel’s national security, which is why we would like Israel to do even more to defeat the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Wigan said on Wednesday. “It is certainly in Israel’s national interest.”
“We understand the concern about the Russian Army in Syria and about the Russian Jewish community, but we clearly think it is in Israel’s national interest” to help Ukraine more, Wigan stated. “I have spoken to Israelis at length about that.”
The Gallant-Reznikov call came a day after Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said that Kyiv knows that it shares an enemy with Israel – Iran – and as such, Yermak said, “We don’t understand why the government and Israeli politicians don’t understand this.”
“No country other than Israel has the capabilities Ukraine needs to defend itself,” Yermak said in a briefing to Israeli reporters. “This equipment will be used in Ukraine against Iranian weapons.”