“If allies together shoot down missiles in the skies in the Middle East, why is there still no decision to shoot down drones and missiles over Ukraine?” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a month ago. According to him, representatives of Western countries are afraid to even say “that they are working on it”; they “just change the subject” if Kyiv brings it up.
U.S. administration officials explained to Politico why the U.S. and Britain helped shoot down Iranian missiles over Israel, and this week the U.S. began deploying advanced air defense systems there that will be manned by dozens of American soldiers. The reason is simple: Russia has nuclear weapons and Iran does not, said a senior Senate aide who deals with the Ukraine issue:
“The harsh truth, which Ukrainians may not like, but which unfortunately there is no escaping, is that we can risk shooting down Iranian missiles over Israel without provoking a direct war with Tehran that could lead to nuclear war. The risk is much higher if you try to do it with Russia.”
Two Joe Biden administration officials made the same point.
Ukrainians really don’t like this approach. “It is sad for an ordinary Ukrainian citizen to look at all this – when your country and your citizens are sacrificed for the sake of preventing escalation with Moscow,” says Mykola Beleskov, chief consultant of the department of military and military-economic policy at the National Institute for Strategic Studies in Kyiv.
This position is held not only in Washington, but also in Berlin. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refuses to consider the issue, although a number of Eastern European countries, Ukraine’s neighbors, offer to discuss strikes against Russian missiles and drones from their territories. Especially since Russian drones have already flown into Poland, Romania and Latvia.
Organizing sky defense over Ukraine would be much more difficult than over Israel, two Ukrainian air defense officers admitted in a conversation with Politico. Israel is a small country, and the U.S. can use ship-based air defense systems and fighters from aircraft carriers against Iranian missiles. In the case of Ukraine, the allies would have to deploy air defense assets near its western border. Given the size of the country, they would be able to protect mostly neighboring territories. The use of NATO airplanes would be virtually impossible – the risk of a confrontation with Russian pilots is too great. Finally, Russian shelling occurs almost daily, while Iran has organized only two mass raids in recent months in response to earlier Israeli actions.
U.S. officials say they understand Kyiv’s discontent and are organizing the delivery of new weapons that would help better protect Ukrainian skies. A spokesman for the president’s office said:
“We are working seriously to provide Ukraine with everything we can to help them defend themselves. Our top priority is to help strengthen their air defenses.”
