Ukraine envoy summoned after Kyiv’s UN vote for international probe of Israel

Ukraine’s envoy to Israel meets with senior Foreign Ministry officials for a conversation that both sides insist isn’t a reprimand of any kind, despite reports to the contrary.

“We will give our position. He will give his position,” deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Zilberman tells The Times of Israel.

“It’s a regular diplomatic meeting,” he adds.

The Foreign Ministry said this morning that Ambassador Yevgen Korniychuk was summoned, but would not expand on the conversation.

At the same time, the Ynet news site reported that Korniychuk was summoned for a reprimand after Ukraine voted in favor of a UN resolution calling for the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israeli “occupation, settlement and annexation.”

Korniychuk denies that the meeting had anything to do with the vote, telling The Times of Israel that he has been seeking a sit-down for the last 10 days to discuss the denial of entry permits for Ukrainian citizens, among other issues, but that the Foreign Ministry has been avoiding his request.

“That’s why I am being called,” he said. “I am not being summoned.”

Responding to the Foreign Ministry’s statement that he was summoned, Korniychuk said, “Screw them. They can say whatever they want.”

Following the meeting, the Ukrainian diplomat says he “forwarded the indignation of the Ukrainian side regarding the entrenched practice of unjustifiably denying Ukrainian citizens entry to the territory of Israel.”

The envoy says that Kyiv considers the obstacles to entry “an unfriendly step.”

He also expresses disappointment with Israel’s abstention during yesterday’s UN vote on Russian reparations payments to Ukraine.