Israel plans to set up a field hospital in Ukraine, media reports

Israel’s Kan news channel reported that the Israeli government is considering setting up a field hospital in Ukraine.

The channel said that the Ukrainian President, Vladimir Zelensky, had renewed his request to Israel to provide urgent aid, including military aid.

It added that Israel will begin setting up the field hospital next week.

Zelensky called Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett twice since the start of the Russian invasion last Thursday, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

Bennett’s office said the prime minister had a brief phone call with Zelensky and said the call was “a follow-up to their conversation last Friday, in which they agreed to maintain continuous communication,” but did not provide further details.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Tel Aviv, Yevgen Korniychuk, admitted that Zelensky had asked Bennett to provide Ukraine with weapons.

“We are in huge need of defensive weapons,” Korniychuk said, during a press conference in Tel Aviv. He added that he will not be able to go into more detail regarding the quality and number of weapons they need, but that he hopes Israel will act like the rest of the world and help his country with weapons as well.

Kan news had previously quoted Israeli security officials saying that Bennett refused to comply with Zelensky’s requests regarding weapons and said that his country’s aid to Kyiv would be limited to humanitarian aid.

READ: Ukraine asks Israel to stop turning refugees away