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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow over Shabbat last week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to negotiate a ceasefire after their invasion of Ukraine – Israel’s first ever attempt at mediating an international crisis.
The Prime Minister, who said he views it as his “moral obligation” to mediate, travelled straight from Moscow to Berlin to update German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. Bennett was joined by Minister Ze’ev Elkin who is Russian speaking and born in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv which has been heavily shelled by Russian forces this week.
PM Bennett and Minister Elkin, both Orthodox Jews deemed the trip important enough to travel on the Shabbat, which is only allowed in Judaism in order to save lives. The Israeli and Russian leaders met for 3 hours on Saturday before Bennett spoke with Ukraine’s President Zelensky on the phone, after which he spoke to Putin again.
This week President Zelensky tweeted his thanks to Prime Minister Bennett and Israel for their mediation efforts, and stated that they had discussed “ways to end the war and violence”. The mediation effort by Israel comes from a request by President Zelensky at the start of the invasion. Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel stated that the nation “is the only democratic state in the world that has great relations with both Ukraine and Russia”, and called the peace effort “priceless”, explaining that they view it as “much more important than sales of weapons or munitions”.
The visit to Moscow was reportedly also used to sense what Putin’s position was, what his state of mind was and what his redlines were, and report them to Western capitals.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has condemned Russia’s invasion as a “serious violation of international order”. Israel’s position on the violence is complicated by several factors, including their attempt to protect the Jewish citizens of Russia and Ukraine as well as Russia’s continued military presence in Syria where Israel undertakes ongoing military strikes against Iranian attempts to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah and establish a military foothold in the country; the two countries operate a deconfliction mechanism.
