Today, Saturday, Ukraine expressed its hope for positive results from Israel's attempt to mediate peace talks with Russia, and Tel Aviv denied reports that it had urged Ukraine to accept Russia's conditions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said - in a press briefing - that he believes that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett can play an important role, because Israel is a country that has many historical events and similarities with Ukraine, and has a large number of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, he said.
Zelensky made it clear that he was open to negotiations in Jerusalem to end the war, and expected that Israel would provide Ukraine with security guarantees.
"I told (Bennett) that having meetings in Russia, Ukraine or Belarus would be counterproductive at the moment. These are not the places where we can agree to stop the war (...) Could Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, be such a place?" I think the answer is yes."
denial of pressure
Earlier today, a senior Ukrainian adviser denied the authenticity of a media report published by Israeli newspapers with the American news website Axios, quoting an unnamed Ukrainian official that Bennett urged Ukraine to submit to Russia.
Ukrainian Chancellor Mikhailo Podolak said on Twitter that "Israel, like other intermediary countries, does not offer Ukraine to agree to any demands from the Russian Federation. This is impossible for military and political reasons; on the contrary, Israel urges Russia to assess events more appropriately."
On the Israeli side, a senior official in Bennett's office told AFP that the report was "clearly false", indicating that no agreement of this kind was originally proposed to Israel so that it could do so.
Since the start of Russia's war on Ukraine on February 24, Bennett has avoided forcefully condemning the attack, while stressing Israel's strong ties with both Moscow and Kiev.
Bennett also tried to play the role of mediator between the two countries to stop the war. He held a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last Saturday, then spoke by phone twice with Putin and four times with Zelensky.
Israeli media reported that Bennett rejected Kyiv's repeated requests for military aid.