Ukraine does not have a need for Iron Dome, the country’s defense minister said on Saturday, in a sharp break from comments previously made by Kyiv’s ambassador to Israel.
In June, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk said that Kyiv wanted to purchase Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system.
“We need Israeli assistance... I mean that we need the military-technical support. We need Iron Dome... which will allow us to save our civilian women and children from the shelling of the Russian missiles in our territory,” he said at the time.
On Saturday, though, in comments first reported by Yahoo News, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told a Forbes summit that the Iron Dome system would not be suitable for Ukraine.
“We all know the example of Israel, which protects the sky quite well,” Reznikov said. “We all know the name Iron Dome, but even it does not give 100% protection. In fact, I’ve been to Israel and talked to their manufacturers and state enterprises. 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.”