To most observers, Ukraine and Israel are natural allies as they both fight difficult, long wars against countries on the same hostile axis.

Though the fight began many decades before, following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has been engaged in a multifront war against Iran and its armed proxies. In June 2025, the focus of that effort shifted to the Islamic Republic itself, which has sustained massive damage in two wars with Israel and the US but is proving more resilient than many expected.

Ukraine, too, has been confronting the Iranian threat since 2022. Since early in Russia’s invasion, Tehran has been providing Moscow with hundreds of exploding drones for use on the battlefield in Ukraine and helped launch their production in Russia.

“Iran supports our enemy and supports aggression,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka told The Times of Israel in December.

But despite the common foe, the Ukraine-Israel relationship remains awkward and tepid, to the detriment of both countries. That reality was on full display this week in Washington, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held separate meetings with US President Donald Trump on the very same morning, but couldn’t manage a sit-down with each other.

Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to the terms


Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka speaks to The Times of Israel in Jerusalem, December 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Embassy in Israel)

Kyiv — and some select Israeli officials — seem eager to move toward a more mutually beneficial relationship, but ties remain oddly anemic. That’s largely due to Jerusalem’s cold shoulder as it continues to defer to Moscow.

“This is the world of old concepts that are no longer relevant,” said Ksenia Svetlova, fellow at Chatham House and executive director at ROPES, the Regional Organization For Peace, Economics & Security, “that Russia is a superpower, that Ukraine is weak and not important.”

Common enemies

Russia and Iran have been openly partnering on weapons and intelligence for years.

“The military cooperation between Iran and Russia is not something new,” boasted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in March. “It’s not a secret. It has been in the past and it’s still there and will continue in the future.”


In this handout photograph taken and released by the Russian Foreign Ministry on July 24, 2026, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) shakes hands with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi before their talks on the sidelines of the Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the SCO Member States in Cholpon-Ata, northeastern Kyrgyzstan. (Handout/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/AFP)

That alliance has exacted a price from both Ukraine and Israel.

Iran uses Russian-made fighter jets, armored vehicles, air defenses, and many more systems.

In December, after Israel decimated Tehran’s Russian-made air defense network, Iran signed a secret 500 million euro ($589 million) arms deal with Russia to acquire thousands of advanced shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, according to the Financial Times. The two countries also signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty in January.


Ukrainian air defense intercepts an Iranian-made ‘Shahed’ drone mid-air in in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 30, 2023. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

At the height of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that Russia had been assisting Iran in the war by providing intelligence on the locations of American military assets in the Middle East.

Ukraine has suffered more directly from the military alliance between Tehran and Moscow.

Russia has deployed thousands of the Iranian-designed Shahed drones against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure, including energy facilities.

“Ukraine and Israel have common enemies,” Ukraine’s former defense minister Oleksii Reznikov told The Times of Israel in March, calling Russia and Iran “the real axis of evil.”


File: Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov attends a press conference in Kyiv, on August 28, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (SERGEI CHUZAVKOV / AFP)

“Iran is using the same drones against you, and Iran is using Russian weaponry against you,” said Reznikov.

An awkward conversation

Ukraine entered direct combat with Iran over the weekend, as Ukrainian drones struck an Iranian ship Kyiv says was carrying weapons across the Caspian Sea to Russia.

According to The New York Times, Iran considered launching a retaliatory strike against Ukrainian territory, but ultimately backed off.

Despite a conversation between the Ukrainian and Iranian foreign ministers, the incident isn’t behind them. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told Iran’s Araghchi that Tehran must “end any support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.”


Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, back to a camera, on the sideline of the summit of Caspian Sea littoral states in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on June 29, 2022. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

Even that wasn’t enough to get Zelensky and Netanyahu together this week.

Both leaders met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, one after the other. It would have made eminent sense for them to see each other for the first time since September 2023.

It would also have been the first conversation of any sort between them in over a year and a half.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) arrives at the White House on July 28, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP)

Though Ukraine was more than willing to make the meeting happen, Netanyahu’s office reportedly declined, citing a lack of time in his schedule. A senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu did not even know about the request, however.

The two finally spoke, however, as dignitaries gathered ahead of the memorial service for senator Lindsey Graham, a leading backer of both Israel and Ukraine.

Though the exchange was inaudible, from footage, the conversation appeared to be tense but respectful, and Netanyahu and Zelensky smiled during their handshake at the end. The two “exchanged a few unexpected words. That’s it,” said the Israeli official.

Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the prime minister’s approach to relations with Ukraine.

A new reality

It doesn’t appear that the spontaneous exchange is going to lead to major change in Israel’s approach.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Jerusalem has pursued a relatively restrained response — condemning the invasion and offering humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but not weapons. Leaders, including in the previous government, pointed at Russia’s formerly widespread military presence in Syria and the need to protect Israel’s freedom of action over that country by not antagonizing Moscow.

That reality doesn’t exist anymore.


Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad watch troops at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria, on December 11, 2017. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Russia-backed Bashar al-Assad regime fell in late 2024. Syria’s current President Ahmad al-Sharaa has allowed Russia to maintain its Tartus naval base and Hmeimim air base, and visited Moscow twice, and there are still a few hundred Russian troops in Syria. But that is a far cry from its military presence under the Assad regime. The US and Turkey are now the dominant foreign powers in the country.

There has been a moderate warming of ties between Kyiv and Jerusalem. Leading a delegation to Jerusalem to convene the first meeting of the Israel–Ukraine Intergovernmental Economic Commission since 2021, Kachka told The Times of Israel in December that he was satisfied with bilateral ties of late.

“It’s a good sign of really good cooperation between our governments,” said the deputy prime minister. “We are looking for greater support and we are ready for greater support to Israel as well.”

Reznikov said that there is now “a good direction of developing of our bilateral connection, relations.”

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar seems to be pushing for a change in Israel’s approach to Ukraine. He visited Kyiv in July 2025, where he announced a strategic dialogue on the Iranian threat. The visit featured multiple displays of warmth between Sa’ar and Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, along with discussions on military cooperation.


Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (right) meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on July 23, 2025. (Shlomi Amsalem/GPO)

“Iran not only threatened Israel,” said Sa’ar. “It threatened regional and global security. It threatened Ukraine. Our actions against its weapons and technology contribute to European security — and to the security of Ukraine.”

But in the year since that visit, Netanyahu hasn’t shown much indication that he wants to recalibrate Israel’s ties with Russia or Ukraine.

In December, Netanyahu boasted of his close contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he said were of strategic value for Israel.

“I speak with President Putin on a regular basis,” Netanyahu said in the Knesset, “and this personal relationship of many years serves our vital interests.”


Syrians celebrate at the first Friday prayers since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster at the central square in Damascus, Syria, on December 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk hit back at the premier for appearing to back Putin, saying in an interview with the Israeli news site Ynet at the time that he “was surprised by Netanyahu’s remarks, especially considering what Israel endured on October 7. One must stand on the right, moral side of history.”

Korniychuk was summoned to the Foreign Ministry over his remarks.

“I don’t even understand what Russia offers Israel anymore,” said Svetlova. “There’s not really a Russian threat to Israel anymore. The only threat, the main threat is their support to Iran.”

Another diplomatic fight erupted in April as Kyiv demanded that Israel not allow Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia to offload at Haifa’s port. Several days of a very public back-and-forth between Sa’ar and Sybiha ended with a decision not to offload the ship, which Kyiv praised as a “welcome development.”

Missed opportunity on drones

The benefits of a more productive Ukraine-Israel relationship are manifest.

Until an agreement between Israel and Lebanon took effect in late June, Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon were coming under near-daily attacks from Hezbollah’s explosive drones, which have killed and wounded soldiers.


Israeli soldiers are seen after taking cover near the Israel-Lebanon border following a Hezbollah drone attack, June 1, 2026. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)

This week, another Hezbollah drone hit an Israeli armored bulldozer in the IDF’s buffer zone.

While Israel has struggled to fend off the attacks, Ukraine has become highly adept at drone warfare in recent years, and has offered to provide help to Israel in combating the threat, though Jerusalem has resisted.

“Nobody asked me to help,” lamented Zelensky in March, when asked why Ukrainian assistance against Iranian drones wasn’t extended to Israel.

“Unfortunately, we do not see much interest or appetite from the Israeli leadership in this field,” Korniychuk told Hebrew media in May. “I do not want to speculate about the reasons for that.”

Ukraine and Israel boast two of the world’s most battle-tested and innovative militaries, and could develop tactics and technology well beyond the drone threat.


In this photo provided by Ukraine’s 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade press service, a servicemen prepares to launch an FPV drone towards Russian positions in a shelter in Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on April 7, 2026. (Iryna Rybakova/Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade via AP)

Ukrainians and their Western backers often describe an “Israel model” for their country’s future — armed, mobilized, and simultaneously developing an advanced economy based on innovation and technology.

“It’s not only connected to Iran,” said Svetlova, “but in excellence in the technological sphere, the military complex; the work against the misinformation and fake news and other things. There is a really wide span.”

“It’s infuriating and unfortunate that until this day, Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to be rebuffing the attempts of the Ukrainians for a long time, to somehow promote this relationship,” she added.

A more pro-Ukrainian stance by Israel would also shore up the argument Netanyahu regularly makes that Israel is fighting the war “of civilization against barbarism” on behalf of Western democracies. That could provide an important opportunity for cooperation with often-critical European countries on one of their priority issues.

But though Israel and Ukraine are firmly on the same side of a geopolitical fault line that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Arctic shores, there doesn’t appear to be an imminent change in Jerusalem’s approach.

In the meantime, Ukraine will likely continue to leave the door open for expanded ties.

“We are looking for greater support and we are ready for greater support to Israel as well,” a hopeful Kachka said over six months ago. “We have more and more topics where we have a common understanding.”