Ukraine has received Patriot missile defense systems from Israel that are already deployed in the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Saturday, according to Israeli media reports.
Zelensky further added that Ukraine will receive two new Patriot systems soon, according to Reuters.
The Ukrainian leader’s statement comes months after the Israeli Foreign Ministry told The Kyiv Independent in June that Patriot systems had not been sent to the country, ostensibly refuting earlier claims made by Israeli ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky that they had.
“The statement is incorrect. Israel has not transferred Patriot systems to Ukraine,” the ministry said at the time.
Brodsky’s statement came during an interview with Ukrainian blogger Marichka Dovbenko. He said that the Patriot system “saved us in the early 1990s, when there was the first war in the Persian Gulf.
We received it from the United States, and by the way, these systems are now in Ukraine. We agreed to transfer them to Ukraine and, unfortunately, we didn’t speak much about it, but when people say that Israel didn’t help militarily, that is not true.”
A report from Ynet noted that it was unclear whether Brodsky had disclosed the matter with the approval of the political echelon before making the claims in the interview.
Israel 'afraid of Putin,' Zelensky said last year
In November of last year, Zelensky claimed that Israel “has been afraid of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” in an interview in Kyiv with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst, after he had asked Israeli officials for help and support amid the Russian invasion.
Zelensky had told Yingst that he had spoken with European and US officials to “help me with Israel to give us support, especially with air defenses.”