Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to host and help mediate negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel told CNN.
“Our president believes Israel is the only democratic state that has great relations with both Russia and Ukraine and that could be used in order to facilitate those negotiations,” Yevgen Korniychuk told CNN Friday evening.
Korniychuk said Jerusalem is preferable to Minsk where previous talks took place because Belarus is a close ally of Russia, and Ukraine does not “believe in the legitimacy” of Belarus’ current leader Alexander Lukashenko.
“(We) definitely need to change the venue and we believe Jerusalem could be a good place for that,” Korniychuk said.
As for the Israeli response to the request, Korniychuk said they “neither agree or deny it, they’re considering it, and that’s a positive sign.”
A spokesperson for Bennett would not comment further beyond the official read out issued about the call, which made no mention of the mediation request.
The request was first reported by Israeli channel Kan 11.
This post has been updated.
