A briefing note produced in response to a request from trade union comrades

Ukraine Solidarity Campaign is not about defending the policies or stances of the Ukrainian government, on either domestic or foreign affairs. We organise with trade unions and the left in Ukraine to oppose their government’s right-wing policies; this includes left-wing activists who last year organised pro-Palestine demonstrations in Ukraine, despite the war and martial law. We simultaneously help defend the Ukrainian people’s rights and Ukraine’s resistance against Russian imperialism – of which the Ukrainian unions and left are part.

Having said that, on Palestine as on other issues, there is disinformation in circulation about the Ukrainian government’s record. What are the facts?

Ukraine, Palestine and Israel

Zelensky and other leaders have certainly sometimes made pro-Israel statements, which can reasonably be criticised. We are not claiming the Ukrainian government is consistently pro-Palestinian; and of course Ukrainians’ right to live free from invasion and occupation does not depend on their government having good politics.

However, note also the following:

Whereas the UK only recognised Palestine as an independent state in 2025, Ukraine has recognised it since 1991 and never wavered from this stance. In recent years it has put this into practice by including Palestine among the countries it invites to international events (eg the international peace summit in Switzerland in June 2024).

After the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023, the Ukrainian government expressed support for Israel. When asked publicly to clarify this, however, Zelensky not only stated that Ukraine stood ready to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and explained Ukraine’s recognition of Palestine as an independent state, but also said his government “will do everything it can to convince Israel to stop, to end this conflict”.

Ukraine has repeatedly publicly condemned attacks on Palestinian civilians, with its first such statement being issued on 18 October 2023. This statement also reiterated Ukraine’s support for an independent Palestinian state.

Contrary to Russian mythmaking, Ukraine regularly votes against Israel on issues of Palestinian rights at the UN. Israeli ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky, who in 2023 complained very publicly about this fact, said that Ukraine opposes Israel in “90% of cases”. Brodsky was particularly upset by Ukraine voting, in November 2022, for a resolution calling for an Israeli-Palestinian peace conference to take place in Moscow – this while Ukraine was defending its own people and territory against Russia’s invasion. However this is just one of many such instances. For instance Ukraine supported a UN resolution the same year asking the International Court of Justice to investigate Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory”.

Ukraine has also regularly sent food aid and other humanitarian aid to the Palestinians during the post-2023 Israeli genocide, enough to feed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families for prolonged periods. On at least one occasion, in October 2024, such aid was hit by Russian bombing while waiting to disembark (as were Ukrainian food shipments to Africa).

In September 2025 Zelensky gave a high profile speech at the UN criticising the lack of concrete support for peoples facing violence and occupation, including these words: “If a nation wants peace, it still has to work on weapons. It’s sick, but that’s the reality… international law doesn’t work unless you have powerful friends who are willing to stand up for it… What can Sudan, Somalia, Palestine or any other people going through war really expect from the UN or the global system? For decades only statements and statements. Even everything happening in Gaza remains without a way out…”

Russia and Israel

Meanwhile the Israeli government has refused Ukraine’s requests for military aid since 2022. Netanyahu and Putin remain, as they have long been, close allies (just as they are both also allied to Trump).

During the last two years they have spoken at least six times; in January 2026, after one of these calls, Netanyahu told the Knesset: “I speak with Putin on a regular basis, and this dialogue has significance for protecting security interests…” Ukraine’s ambassador formally protested about this, and Israel’s foreign ministry issued him a warning.

In June 2025, when asked in an interview why Russia was not helping Iran during the Israeli-US bombing campaign against it – with hindsight the prelude to the current war – despite Iran’s provision of missiles for Russia’s war in Ukraine, Putin said: “Israel today is almost a Russian-speaking country, two million people from the Soviet Union and Russia live there. We take that into account.”

This recapitulated a theme Putin has emphasised over many years. But crucially, Russia’s support for Israel – including and in fact particularly under far-right Israeli governments – is not just rhetorical.

While using pro-Palestinian rhetoric opportunistically, Russia has massively aided Israel materially during the recent genocide. Between November 2023 and October 2025, according to campaigning NGO Oil Change International, Russia provided 45% of Israel’s refined petroleum products – ie fuel without which Israel’s war machine could not have functioned – and was also a significant supplier of crude oil (‘New Data Exposes Countries Fueling Genocide in Gaza’, November 2025). In other words, Russia is as responsible for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians as the states that armed Israel. While Ukraine sent food to Palestine, Russia sent fuel to Israel.

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