Israel has been providing Ukraine with “basic intelligence about Iranian drones” that Russia is deploying in its war against Ukraine, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
A private Israeli company has also begun providing Ukraine with satellite imagery of Russian military positions on Ukrainian territory, the report said, citing a senior Ukrainian official.
On Wednesday, Ukraine shot down at least nine Iranian-made drones launched by Russia, Ukraine’s military said.
Meanwhile, Fox News reported on Tuesday that Moscow has armed its neighbor and ally Belarus with dozens of Iranian-made drones, as tensions between Minsk and NATO grow and Belarus threatens to send ground forces into Ukraine to support its Russian ally.
Kyiv’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, a part of its Defense Ministry, said on Tuesday that 32 Iranian-made Shahed-136 suicide drones arrived in Belarus in recent days and that eight more are slated to arrive by Friday.
Ukraine said 84 cruise missiles and dozens of drones were fired by Russia at its cities on Wednesday, targeting energy infrastructure and other civilian sites.
“Ukraine has asked Israel for air defense systems as well, given the successes of that country’s Iron Dome as well as the longer-range Barak-8 [surface-to-air missile]. Israel has so far declined, however, reluctant to provoke Russia into obstructing Israeli airstrikes in Syria, where Russia has a military presence,” the Times reported.
In late September, a senior Ukrainian official said Israel delivered “a little bit of intelligence information” about Iranian weapons being supplied to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.
However, “we need much more than that,” Kan News reported the official as saying.