Israel and Ukraine are fighting off the same enemies and need U.S. support to continue, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk told Jewish Insider on Wednesday.

“What unites us is that we are against the axis of evil,” Korniychuk said, describing “a trilateral coalition of Iran, Russia and North Korea, presumably backed by China – you see that in the transfer of technology.”

“If the rest of the democratic world stops Russia now, they will save their future and the future of their children,” he added. “It’s not just about Ukraine. Russia basically assumes they’re fighting the U.S. in the territory of Ukraine; that’s what they are telling their public.”

Korniychuk said the message often heard from American politicians — “we will not allow Ukraine to lose, we will not allow Russia to prevail” — is insufficient.

“They need to help Ukraine win and Russia lose. That is a clear message,” he emphasized.

At the same time, Korniychuk said that “Ukraine already won this war, because what Russia had in mind was to destroy the legitimately elected Ukrainian government and change it to pro-Russian leadership. We held our independent state and the majority of our territories. About 20% is unfortunately temporarily occupied, but we are not willing to surrender.” 

“We do wake up in the morning and say thank you every day for what [the U.S. is] doing for us, but unfortunately, it’s not enough… Our people are dying on the front lines every single day,” the ambassador said. 

Ukraine took notice when Israel, the U.S., U.K., France and Jordan acted together to thwart Iran’s missile and drone attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X at the time: “The entire world witnessed allied action in the skies above Israel and neighboring countries. It demonstrated how truly effective unity in defending against terror can be when it is based on sufficient political will… European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles.”

Ukraine is “jealous of Israel – in a good way,” Korniychuk said, because “Israel has much better support from the Western alliance than we do.” 

Korniychuk acknowledged the argument made by U.K. Foreign Minister David Cameron that shooting down Russian drones and missiles shot at Ukraine would be a “dangerous escalation” because of Moscow’s nuclear weapons.

However, the ambassador said that Israel played a political long game that Ukraine did not have the foresight to play.

“I was elected to parliament in Ukraine twice…in the 2000s,” he recalled. “At that time, Russia tried to control Ukraine using economic influence, to buy the votes of our people and our politicians by spoiling them with cheap gas. Unfortunately, the majority of Ukrainians before 2014, when Russia took over Crimea and started the war in the Donbas, were against joining NATO and the EU…Russian propaganda was so good that I fell for it myself.”

In contrast, Korniychuk said, “Israel has been working with the U.S. on its security since their first defense agreement in 1962. Israel is currently in the midst of a 10-year security agreement, which is enhanced every time it is renewed with better cooperation in intelligence and technology and joining production.”

Korniychuk became a familiar face in the Jewish state after Russia invaded his country in 2022, with frequent interviews, press conferences and media stunts to call attention to Kyiv’s plight and what he felt Israel could be doing to help more. But he has been much less of a local media fixture since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, with Israelis’ attention locked on its own war effort and hostage crisis.

Korniychuk said it’s “natural” that the world would lose interest in Ukraine when the war has been ongoing for two and a half years, and that “the U.S. is very involved with itself” because it’s an election year.

However, “people on the front lines are tired, as are civilians. Every Ukrainian is impacted by this war…I cannot tell you how deep the sorrow and anger is.” 

Ukraine is continuing the war, the ambassador said, and called on the democratic world to continue to support its military immediately in order to keep Russia from pushing further into Ukrainian territory.

“We are grateful to our partners around the world, the U.S., Great Britain and other European countries, our neighbors who have been helping from day one [of the war], and to Israelis who have been doing what they can in their difficult situation after Oct 7,” he said, “but from what I see, our American partners are managing the risks against a nuclear superpower and are feeding us with a teaspoon.”

“When our American partners tell us that they will give Ukraine everything we need to be able to return our territories that were occupied by 2025, I do hope that we all survive until 2025 and keep the Russian enemy where it is. The aid is needed now,” he added.

Korniychuk said he was surprised to see how many Republican members of Congress voted against the $95 billion aid package to Ukraine and Israel, attributing the opposition to long-standing isolationist views in American politics.

“History can repeat itself with another Pearl Harbor,” he warned. “We need powerful world leadership to make the decision to stop Russia, whatever it takes.”

In addition, he warned that “Russian propaganda works better than Russian troops,” and that Moscow is “trying to buy politicians in the West and create biased media, even in the U.S., and they have been successful.” 

As for the frequently heard argument about corruption among opponents of Ukraine aid in Congress, Korniychuk pointed out that the military aid can only be used for procurements in the U.S.: “They will have the tools to watch closely how the money is spent and where the weapons go and watch every single one of these weapons move to the front line.”

“When they talk about corruption, this is Russian propaganda, which says in its news that Ukraine is the most corrupt country in the world,” he said. “