Israel ‘sends weapons captured in Lebanon to Ukraine’

Israel is considering sending Soviet and Russian-made weapons captured in Lebanon to Ukraine, with signs transfers may be under way.

Israel reportedly met with Ukrainian diplomats on Tuesday to discuss a weapons transfer. Since then, US military cargo planes have been tracked flying from Israel to an airbase in eastern Poland.

“There are signs that Israel has begun supplying Ukraine with Soviet and Russian-made weapons,” Two Majors, a pro-Russia military blog on the Telegram social messaging site, told its 1.2 million subscribers on Sunday.

It posted photos of dozens of shoulder-mounted missiles laid out on hard-baked ground, as well as two screengrabs of a US military plane flying from Ramstein airbase in Germany to Hatzerim airbase in Israel and then to Rzeszów in Poland, near the border with Ukraine.

Around 60 per cent of the weapons captured by Israel during the fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2024 were made by the Soviet Union and Russia, according to reports.

These include sniper rifles and modern Kornet anti-tank missiles given to Hezbollah by Syria, which had been a staunch ally of Russia under Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

It comes after the Ukrainian embassy thanked Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, for asking the Israeli parliament to approve sending the captured weapons to Ukraine.

“It is noted that this initiative would be an important step in recognising the common threats facing both countries. The Ukrainian side expressed hopes for a positive solution to this issue,” the Ukrainian embassy said.

The weapons transfer deal was a private proposal initiated by Ms Haskel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, also met with his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog this week “to discuss important issues related to the cooperation between Ukraine and Israel”.

Israel has historically adopted a neutral policy against Russia but has become more aligned with Ukraine due to deepening ties between Moscow and Iran.

Iran has become an important ally of Russia over the past three years, supplying the Kremlin with thousands of drones and missiles to fire at Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Iran has propped up terror groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah whose goal is the destruction of the state of Israel.

Last year, Iran fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel on multiple occasions.

On Sunday the US said that the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel would remain in effect until Feb 18, after Israel said on Friday it would keep troops in the south beyond the Sunday deadline.

Israel killed 22 people in south Lebanon on Sunday as a deadline for their withdrawal passed and thousands of people tried to return to their homes in defiance of Israeli military orders, Lebanese authorities said.