For the people of eastern Ukraine, where nightly drone attacks from Russia outpace the military’s overwhelming air defenses, the response of Western allies to the aerial assault Iran’s targeting of Israel this weekend has drawn uncomfortable comparisons.
The US, British, French and other militaries stepped in to help Israel defend against an attack by more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles, nearly all of which were intercepted. A similar number of aerial weapons are fired into Ukraine every week, the country’s officials say, with many of the drones in the attacks designed by Iran and now produced by Russia.
According to Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, since the beginning of this year, Russia has fired 1,000 missiles, 2,800 drones and 7,000 guided bombs into Ukraine. While Washington and other allies have provided Kiev with some powerful anti-aircraft weapons, they have not directly confronted Russian forces, and Ukrainian officials have long argued that the weapons provided were not enough. enough to counter the threat from Moscow.
In the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where 1.3 million people live under nightly air-raid warnings, many people expressed anger and frustration over the weekend as Ukraine’s allies, wary of provocations, encouraged Russia, did not protect them as they did Israel.
“When the missiles flew to Israel, the whole world wrote about it,” said Amil Nasirov, a 29-year-old singer. “Here, missiles are flying and we don’t have American bombers saving the skies like in Israel.”
“So stupid; that is hypocrisy,” he added. “And it feels like some kind of devaluation of Ukrainian lives.”
Ukraine has been begging since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 for more tools to close the skies to Russian missiles. But first thing Patriot missile system from the United States and Germany – the only proven defenses against ballistic missiles – are not expected to arrive until spring 2023.
Ukraine also pleaded F-16 fighter aircraftThe Biden administration, which must approve any transfer of American-made aircraft, has long opposed providing them out of concern that Moscow would see it as an escalation.
They eventually gave in, but Ukrainian pilots are still being trained on the system and they are not expected to fly over Ukraine until this summer.
Ukrainian officials noted the fighter jets’ role in defending Israel as a sign of their importance in air defense.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the response to Iran’s attack was clear evidence that “the world has everything it needs to stop any missiles, Shahed drones and other forms of terrorism.” ”. Iranian-made attack drones which is a large part of Russia’s arsenal.
“The whole world sees what real defense is. It sees it as possible. And the whole world sees that Israel is not alone in this defense – the threat in the sky is also being eliminated by its allies,” Mr. Zelensky said in his latest nightly address.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, said on Monday that while his country is one of Ukraine’s staunchest military backers – training thousands of troops, providing tanks and other advanced weapons – Britain cannot shoot down planes without Russian pilots over Ukraine because it could spark a wider war in Europe.
“If you want to avoid an escalation in a wider war in Europe, I think what you need to avoid is NATO troops directly engaging Russian troops,” Mr. Cameron told British radio station LBC. “That would be an escalation risk.”
The US is still the main supplier of ammunition for Ukraine’s best air defense system. But the last time Congress approved military aid to Ukraine was in October. Over the past months, Ukraine’s air defenses have been severely depleted, while Russia has been more successful in using air power. troops to advance to the front lines, attacking Ukraine’s energy grid and causing further civilian casualties.
According to the United Nations, at least 126 people were killed and 478 others injured in Russian strikes in March, a 20% increase from the previous month.
Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting from Kharkiv, Ukraine.
