Ukraine and Israel will deepen defense cooperation, driven by mutual security interests as both countries continue to fight deadly wars, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced Wednesday.
The announcement was made during Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s visit to Kyiv, where he also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
During his meeting with Sa’ar, Sybiha stated that Ukraine sees significant opportunities for deepening its cooperation with Israel in areas such as defense technology, healthcare, energy, agriculture, cybersecurity, and others.
“Ukraine and Israel have significant potential in the field of defense technologies. The time has come to realize this potential jointly for the sake of the security and stability of our countries,” he said.
Writing on X/Twitter, Zelensky said he discussed with Sa’ar “cooperation, primarily in the economic and defense sectors, strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense, and opportunities for joint weapons production.”
While Israel has until now refused to provide Ukraine with any arms, Jerusalem has provided a field hospital and other civilian aid to the embattled country.
“We were the first country to open a field hospital in Ukraine. We have sent generators, food, water, and winter equipment. Two weeks ago, I instructed my ministry to provide mobile water purification systems to eastern Ukraine after its water infrastructure was damaged by Russian bombings. This will be implemented shortly,” Sa’ar said during the visit. “We have sent experts to assist with post-traumatic and resilience efforts. We have provided medical treatment to injured Ukrainians in Israel. Israel stands with Ukraine and its people.”
Israel, Ukraine built formidable defense-tech sector in the face of war
Propelled by wartime urgency, both nations have built a formidable defense-tech ecosystem with cutting-edge innovation reaching warfighters on the battlefield in record time. Venture Capital funds have been pouring into both countries as start-ups continue to emerge.
While regulations have barred Israeli companies from selling their defense products to Ukraine, many prime contractors as well as start-ups have found ways to bring their solutions to the embattled European nation.
As both countries recognize the shared threats and Kyiv’s defense-tech sector proving itself under fire, Jerusalem is finally shifting from humanitarian aid to forward-looking defense tech cooperation.
Though Ukraine has been at war with Russia since Moscow invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, a 2022 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that Kyiv’s imports of major arms between 2017 and 2021 were very limited.
However, the country’s once-neglected defense industry surged from 2022 to 2025, with an expected output of $15 billion this year, thanks in large part to the hundreds of tech start-ups that are manufacturing critical equipment such as drones and counter-unmanned aerial system (UAS) solutions.
In April, the Republican member of Congress from North Carolina Pat Harrigan wrote that “80% of Russian casualties in Ukraine are caused by low-cost software-defined First Person View drones.”
According to a recent report by the SIPRI, Ukraine has become the world’s “largest importer of major arms” in the period 2020-24, with its imports increasing nearly 100 times over compared with 2015-19.
The report found that at least 35 states sent weapons to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and substantial further deliveries are to be delivered in the near future.
“Ukraine received 8.8 percent of global arms imports in 2020–24,” the report read, adding that most of the major arms supplied to Ukraine came from the USA (45%), followed by Germany (12%) and Poland (11%).”
While the report found that imports of major arms by European states increased by 155% between 2015 and 2019, and 2020 and 2024, Ukraine was the only European state among the top 10 importers in 2020-2024.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.