Top Ukraine official says recent vote at UN against Israel was a ‘mistake’

Speaking at the Ukraine-Israel Innovation Summit in Warsaw, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s personal aide says Kyiv’s UN vote in November to refer the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the International Court of Justice in The Hague was a “mistake” that must be fixed.

The adviser, Alexey Arestovych, blames inertia within Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry for support of the resolution, titled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.”

He had previously called Kyiv’s position “illogical and unacceptable.”

Arestovych’s comments do not mean Kyiv has decided to vote against the measure when it comes up for a vote in the General Assembly later this month. A date has not yet been set, and this week Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel told The Times of Israel that it was too early to talk about Kyiv’s position.

Israel has been hard at work trying to move Ukraine on the issue. Prime Minister Yair Lapid sent a letter to Zelensky asking him to oppose to measure.

“I’ve spoken several with several deputy ministers in Ukraine, including one face-to-face last week, regarding their vote in December,” says Israel’s envoy to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky.

“We’ve absolutely conveyed the message more than once,” he says.