- March 17, 2026
- 10:19 pm
- World News
On March 16, 2026, a thought was once again voiced on Ukrainian airwaves that has long ceased to be controversial for Israel. Ukraine and Israel are not fighting two different wars, but two interconnected battles against forces that coordinate, exchange technologies, exert pressure, and provide political cover. If the West continues to perceive these as separate crises, both conflicts could drag on for years.
This was stated on the air of Radio NV by Ukrainian politician and diplomat, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine Roman Bessmertny. His wording was harsh: the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Iranian-Israeli confrontation are two fronts of one big war. And if Washington and Europe do not understand this in time, the prospect of ‘infinity’ for both countries will cease to be a metaphor.
For the Israeli reader, the importance lies not only in the thesis itself but also in the logic behind it. Iranian drone strike technologies have already helped Russia build new scales of terror against Ukrainian cities. At the same time, Israel itself lives in a reality where the Iranian threat is no longer limited to statements, proxy structures, or nuclear blackmail. It is one system of pressure, just on different parts of the map.
Why Kyiv and Jerusalem increasingly find themselves in the same strategic framework
Bessmertny says that the enemies of Ukraine and Israel do not act chaotically or alone. In his assessment, Russia, Iran, and China act as allies within what he calls the ‘axis of evil,’ coordinating their steps and exploiting the weaknesses of the democratic camp.
This thought resonates particularly sensitively in Israel, where the issue of threat coordination has long ceased to be a theory for expert circles. When the same production chains, political interests, and military technologies work against both Ukraine and Israel, the conversation is no longer about one country sympathizing with another. It’s about the pragmatics of survival.
Bessmertny essentially warns: if democracies continue to dismantle the Ukrainian and Israeli fronts separately, they will themselves give the enemy the main resource — time. And a war that gains time quickly begins to look familiar. This is perhaps the most dangerous moment.
What Bessmertny believes the West is doing wrong
His complaint is not only addressed to the enemies.
He also speaks of a crisis within the Western camp itself: instead of coordination, developing a common plan, mutual assistance, and reasonable distribution of limited resources, allies often act disjointedly. Against this backdrop, he specifically criticizes Donald Trump, claiming that he destabilizes the very possibility of such coordination. Plus, according to the diplomat, some resources are already being wasted meaninglessly — at a time when both Ukraine and Israel need not beautiful statements, but precise assembly of solutions.
This is a very Israeli-sounding problem. Here, they perfectly understand that scarce resources — from air defense systems to the political attention of allies — cannot be spent as if there is endless time. There is not.
Who Kyiv believes should assemble a new coalition
When asked which countries could take on leadership in building a common front of support for Ukraine and Israel, Bessmertny answered without a long list. In his opinion, such a process can primarily be launched today by London and Berlin, in conjunction with Jerusalem.
And only after the emergence of a common framework of solutions, he believes, should Kyiv more closely join this trio, and then the rest of Europe and Washington. This is an important point: the Ukrainian diplomat suggests not waiting for all Western capitals to simultaneously mature for a common line, but to start with those who are still capable of thinking strategically and working several steps ahead.
There is a certain harsh logic in this. Israel today is not an external observer or a secondary participant in the process. Israel is part of that very security node, without which the conversation about countering Iran would be incomplete and almost decorative.
That is why NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency increasingly view the Ukrainian and Israeli agenda not as two neighboring blocks of news, but as an interconnected storyline. When the same axis of pressure tests the West for fatigue, disunity, and lack of will, both Kyiv and Jerusalem find themselves in the same political reality — even if the geography of the fronts is different.
Why the ‘Ramstein’ format resurfaces in this scheme
Bessmertny believes that the operational part of such a process could be the ‘Ramstein’ format. That is, not another symbolic meeting for the sake of a photo, but a platform where coordination turns into staff work: who gives what, who is responsible for what, where is the deficit, how resources are distributed, how risks are closed on two fronts at once.
Further, in his assessment, everything will in any case come down to NATO and the role of its current leadership, including the organizational function of Mark Rutte. In other words, political will without military and logistical structure will once again hang in the air. And this is exactly what Kyiv seems to fear most now — delays, dispersion, conversations without a system.
What this means for Israel right now
For Israel, this thesis is not reduced to supporting Ukraine ‘out of solidarity.’ It’s about its own security.
If the West does not learn to coordinate assistance to Ukraine and Israel as an element of one containment architecture, both countries will be drawn into a scenario of a long war of attrition. Ukraine — under constant strikes from Russian missiles and Iranian drones. Israel — under increasing pressure from Iran, its proxies, and its military ambitions, including the nuclear program. In such a regime, the word ‘existential’ ceases to be journalism and becomes an accurate description of the situation.
Bessmertny is precisely talking about this: Ukraine and Israel are already in a state of war where the price of a mistake is higher than usual. And if the coalition of freedom and democracy does not develop clear coordination, the enemy will have everything it needs to prolong the conflict — time, chaos, dispersion, and the Western habit of reacting only after the next blow.
In essence, this is the main conclusion. Not Ukraine separately. Not Israel separately. And not even just Iran or Russia separately. The question is whether the West is finally ready to recognize that it faces one common security crisis, split into two fronts.
As long as there is no such recognition, both wars indeed risk going on for too long. And not because solutions do not exist, but because those who should be assembling them into one system still behave as if time can be bought. But for Kyiv and Jerusalem, this has long been not the case.