Israel dispatches diplomatic reinforcements to Kyiv to aid evacuation of Israelis

Foreign Ministry sends reinforcements to Kyiv to help Israelis leave

The Foreign Ministry has dispatched extra staff to Kyiv to reinforce diplomats there and assist the Israeli embassy in Kiev in getting Israeli citizens out of Ukraine.

The embassy staff are also preparing for the possible evacuation of large numbers of Ukrainian Jews. The country is home to one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities, many of them in towns near the eastern frontier with Russia.

The 6:30 a.m. El Al plane to Kyiv from Israel is empty, which is not surprising given tensions there. But the ministry has indicated that flights coming from Ukraine are also not filling up, despite pleas from top Israeli officials for Israelis to leave now before a feared Russian invasion takes place.

Some 10,000 to 15,000 Israelis are thought to be in Ukraine.

Approximately 56,000 people who self-identify as Jews live there, according to a 2020 demographic survey by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Plans for airlifting them to Israel have been around since 2013, when Ukraine’s government fell as a result of a bloody revolution against the regime of president Viktor Yanukovych, whose critics said was a corrupt Russian stooge.

JTA contributed to this report.