Ukrainian ambassador to Israel says 'I told you so' after Hezbollah kills 4 IDF soldiers with Iranian drone

A day after an Iranian-made drone killed four IDF soldiers and injured many others, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel said, “I told you so,” to the Israeli government. He highlighted Israel's reluctance to supply military equipment to Ukraine to defend against Russia’s use of Iranian-made drones.

“I don’t want to say now, ‘I told you so,’ but I told you so,” Ukrainian Ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk said in an interview with Ynet News.

He went on to say Israel and Ukraine “are fighting the same enemy,” and that while “Israel woke up” on Oct. 7, “there is much more to do.”

In February, Korniychuk told Ynet, “If we don't cooperate against the threat of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles, we will squander a rare opportunity to gain strength. We have many abilities and would be happy to share them with Israel and there is technological knowledge here that we would be happy to acquire.”

Korniychuk has repeatedly criticized Israel for denying requests from the Ukrainian government for military support.

The Times of Israel reported that Korniychuk has brought “drone shards to senior Israeli officials as a part of his extensive attempts to convince the Jewish state to take a much stronger stance in favor Kyiv and against Moscow, but Israel rebuffed those efforts.”

Last summer, the Ukrainian embassy blasted Israel, stating that its “so-called neutrality” was “considered as a clear pro-Russian position.”

“While the people of Ukraine, including its substantial Jewish community, are bleeding under the onslaught of Russian missiles and Iranian drones, the Israeli leadership, hiding behind verbal demagoguery about their neutrality (albeit no longer concealing it) actively forges relations with the Russian federation,” another statement said.

Netanyahu has defended Israel’s actions, stating that “we have concerns that any systems that we give to Ukraine would be used against us because they could fall into Iranian hands,” and that a similar situation “actually happened with the Western anti-tank weapons that we now find at our borders.”

While not providing Ukraine with military equipment, Israel has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, taken in thousands of Ukrainian refugees, and offered extensive humanitarian aid.

Israel has reportedly approved the sale of electronic anti-drone systems to Ukraine, which were developed by Israeli defense companies.