In December last year, Israel’s ministry of defence told the three Baltic states that they would be denied permission to transfer Israeli weapons to Ukraine if they asked for it, Breaking Defence has reported.
In January, the US State Department allowed Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to transfer American-made lethal weapons, including anti-aircraft Stinger missiles and anti-tank Javelin missiles, to Ukraine.
Read more: Baltic states to supply Ukraine with Stinger, Javelin missiles
But according to Breaking Defence, Tel Aviv issued “an almost unheard-of preemptive denial” to prevent the Baltic states from sending Israel-made weapons to Ukraine. The move was perceived as driven by “Israel’s need to balance its relations with Russia”.
The US and Israel put strict “end-user” regulations on weapons sold abroad, legally restricting the ability of the buying nation to send the equipment to a third party without permission from the producer.
Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian armed forces own Spike anti-tank missiles, jointly built by Israeli and German companies.
Lithuanian ministry of defence told Breaking Defence that the Israeli ambassador and Lithuanian deputy defence minister met on January 31.
“However, no transfer of Israeli-made weapons to Ukraine have been raised during the bilateral talks,” the ministry said.
Israel is interested in maintaining good relations with Russia, needed to allow Israel to operate in Syria.
Israel maintains political relations with Ukraine, but it has not sold to Kyiv any weapons in the last decade, according to the data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
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