The Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel, Yevgeny Korniychuk, called for the two countries to cooperate more closely against Russian and Iranian propaganda. In his assessment, without uniting efforts, Ukraine and Israel are losing to their opponents in terms of the scale of the informational confrontation.
Author: Elena Gunko, NANews
The statement came three months after the publication of an official Israeli report that revealed serious shortcomings in the country’s protection against foreign influence. And the question arises: if Kyiv is ready to share information, who will coordinate such work in Israel?
What Korniychuk said on October 17
On October 17, 2026, Interfax-Ukraine reported the ambassador’s statement on the need for closer intelligence and informational cooperation.
“The same tools are being used against us,” Korniychuk emphasized, calling for more active information exchange and joint counteraction against Russia, Iran, and their allies.
The agency did not specify where the statement was made. Therefore, calling it an interview is incorrect. There is also no information about new agreements or specific joint operations.
The assessment of the scale of the propaganda war belongs to the diplomat. There is no comparative data in the publication to establish whether Ukraine and Israel are indeed losing to their opponents.
The Israeli problem: the state acknowledged its own shortcomings
On July 7, 2026, the State Comptroller of Israel, Matanyahu Engelman, published a report on countering foreign influence in the digital space.
For readers unfamiliar with the structure of the Israeli state: the State Comptroller (Mevaker ha-Medina, מבקר המדינה) is an independent body that audits the activities of state institutions. It is not an intelligence service or a government department.
The results of the audit were alarming.
As of March 2026, Israel lacked a unified national policy to counter foreign informational operations. No state body was designated to lead interagency work in this area.
The report particularly highlights Iran. According to the comptroller, campaigns related to foreign interference are aimed at exacerbating internal conflicts, undermining public trust, and spreading panic. They accompanied military actions, protests, and elections.
This does not mean that Israeli services do not counter foreign influence at all. The problem identified by the comptroller lies primarily in insufficient overall coordination.
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Earlier, we thoroughly analyzed the content of this report and the threats to social media users in Israel.
However, the document itself does not prove the existence of a unified Russian-Iranian center for managing informational operations. Military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran is an established fact, but the involvement of a specific state in a specific informational campaign requires independent evidence.
Ukraine has a structure that Israel currently lacks
Since 2021, Ukraine has had a Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. It monitors informational threats, analyzes propaganda campaigns, and prepares materials for state bodies.
Its existence does not guarantee victory over Russian propaganda. However, it allows understanding which structures can participate in international information exchange.
In Israel, according to the July report of the comptroller, the problem with unified interagency leadership remained unresolved.
This makes Korniychuk’s proposal a practical issue, not just a diplomatic call.
With whom should Ukrainian specialists exchange investigation results? Who will compare messages in Ukrainian, Russian, Hebrew, and English? Who is responsible for passing identified threats to state agencies?
There is currently no publicly announced Ukrainian-Israeli mechanism for such work.
Cooperation did not begin in October
On July 23, 2025, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited Kyiv and held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha.
At that time, the ministers agreed to start a strategic dialogue on the Iranian threat.
A strategic dialogue is a format of intergovernmental consultations, not a military alliance or an automatic obligation to share secret intelligence data.
On August 20, 2026, Korniychuk in an interview with The Jerusalem Post spoke about plans to hold a meeting in Kyiv within this dialogue. The ambassador also reminded about Iranian drones used by Russia against Ukraine.
The talk is about Shahed — Iranian-designed strike drones that both countries have encountered. Russia not only uses such drones but also develops its own modifications.
On August 24, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter to Volodymyr Zelensky explicitly called Iran a common threat to Israel and Ukraine.
Thus, Korniychuk’s October call continues the already started cooperation. But the existence of a diplomatic dialogue does not yet confirm the existence of a joint system to combat disinformation.
What this means for Israel
For Israeli society, including Russian-speaking residents of the country, cooperation could mean faster exchange of information about fake accounts, coordinated informational campaigns, and attempts to spread false messages.
But criticism of the Israeli or Ukrainian government itself is not a foreign informational operation. It is necessary to establish the origin of messages, signs of coordination, and evidence of interference.
Elena Gunko believes that the main question after the ambassador’s statement is no longer about the readiness of the two states to talk about a common threat. They agreed on this earlier.
More importantly: will Ukraine and Israel have a working mechanism that allows them to jointly identify foreign informational operations, and who will be responsible for its results.
There is no answer yet.