Right and bold gesture: diplomat on Zelenskyy's likely visit to Israel

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

The diplomat commented on the preparations for the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Israel next week.

"For a very long time, Ukraine's position on voting on the settlement of Middle East conflicts has been a tradition from the Soviet era - to be somewhere in the middle. But here we have a situation where those who attacked Ukraine and Israel are coordinating with each other, Russia and Iran. And we are in the same boat now, so we had to really correlate our foreign policy positions, despite the fact that, let's be honest, Israel did not do this during Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine. But Ukraine did. I think it was the right gesture by President Zelenskyy to immediately look for opportunities to support Israel," said the former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States.

According to him, Ukraine is now very close to Israel's position, as the two countries are in a difficult situation of self-defense.

"I think it was perhaps Prime Minister Netanyahu's mistake that he did not create the conditions for this visit to take place sooner. And if it happens now, it is the right gesture and quite a brave one. Ukraine was largely in a position of support, although not many world leaders immediately expressed a desire to come to Israel. But now, I really hope that this visit of the president can really change the approaches of the two countries. I hope that Israel will also draw some conclusions from the previous line of hope for Putin that he will be able to restrain Hamas. The situation has changed. I don't know how ready Prime Minister Netanyahu is to talk about new conditions. But the fact that we can work closer together in military and technical cooperation is obvious. Moreover, Israel has something that can help Ukraine, and we can do some things for Israel, so we are in the same boat now, so such a visit would be timely," commented Valeriy Chaly.

• On October 11, the Israeli online media outlet Ynet reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was considering a visit to Israel.
• On November 3, The Times of Israel reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may visit Israel next week. Preparations for the visit are in the final stages