RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from The Times of Israel — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 1 sourcesPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke and shook hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before senator Lindsey Graham's funeral service on Tuesday, after both leaders were hosted separately at the White House by US President Donald Trump.
The conversation looked to be quite serious but cordial, and Netanyahu and Zelensky smiled during their handshake.
They had not spoken since January 2025 and the last time they met in person was September 2023. The two explored arranging a formal meeting in Washington on Tuesday, but ultimately did not move ahead with the idea.
Haaretz reported that Netanyahu's office rebuffed a request to meet, with a Ukrainian source telling the Hebrew daily that the Prime Minister's Office proposed the sit-down but never responded after Zelensky agreed. There was no immediate comment from either side on the report.
Also Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha and invited him to visit Israel.
"We discussed the challenges facing our nations, including the threat posed by Iran," said Sa'ar.
"Israel and Ukraine are friends, and I look forward to further deepening our cooperation, including through the establishment of new education centers in Ukrainian hospitals," wrote Sa'ar on X.
Sybiha said that he accepted Sa'ar's invitation, adding that he updated his Israeli counterpart "about Russia’s escalation of terror against civilian vessels and freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and their implications for global food security, including for Israel as an importer."
The Ukrainian foreign minister said he also told Sa'ar about Ukraine's preparations to commemorate the upcoming 85th anniversary of the Babyn Yar, during which the Nazis and their collaborators murdered more than 33,000 Jews over two days in September 1941.
Ties between Jerusalem and Kyiv have been delicate since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, with Zelensky earlier this year saying that Netanyahu has sought to maintain a neutral stance on the conflict despite Russia providing critical intelligence to Iran in the war with the US and Israel.
Ukraine has sought to purchase Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which Netanyahu ruled that out to avoid antagonizing Russia, while also resisting Ukrainian offers to help Israel counter the threat of drone attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli officials routinely defended this stance when Russia controlled the skies over Syria before the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in 2024. Since then, some Israeli officials have been willing to break more publicly with Moscow, though Netanyahu has avoided doing so.
The meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office, which like Netanyahu's closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the NATO summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where the US president announced that his administration will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defense systems — a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks.
Taken together, those meetings underscore how much Trump, once a major skeptic of continued assistance to Kyiv, has warmed to Zelensky as Ukraine continues to withstand the Russian barrage more than four years after Moscow's invasion in 2022. The Ukrainian leader, whose relationship with Trump in his second term was marked by a raucous White House visit in which he was denigrated for being ungracious, has worked to court the Republican administration while relying on both likely and unlikely allies in Trump's orbit to exert their influence with the president.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has consumed much of the Trump administration's focus this year, has also become gradually entwined with Ukraine, with Ukraine firing on at least one Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea over the weekend while Zelensky asserts that Russia has been offering satellite imagery of US bases in the Persian Gulf to Iran.
In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelensky thanked Trump for the “good meeting” and the Republican administration's efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war.
“The president and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,” said Zelensky, who also noted that he offered condolences to Trump for the death of Graham, a close ally. “We also spoke about diplomacy — it’s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both the Zelensky meeting and the sit-down with Netanyahu were “positive and productive.”
Later during his whirlwind, one-day visit to Washington, Zelensky posted that he met with officials from Lockheed Martin for further cooperation in both defense production and exchanging of technologies, saying, “Ukraine has a lot to share with those who help us protect lives.”
Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute, said expanding production capacity for Patriot interceptors is not only vital for Ukraine, but also for the US and its Gulf allies, particularly as supply runs low during the war in Iran.
“Ukraine has shown that its defense industry is capable, innovative and creative,” Coffey said. “I have no doubt that when they’re granted the license, they will be able to produce these missiles which will hopefully mean there will be more available for the US.”
Trump welcomed Zelensky to the White House as the Ukrainian leader traveled to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other exports.
In a Fox News Channel interview Tuesday, Trump recalled Graham's hawkishness and said the Republican South Carolina senator's support for Ukraine never wavered. Trump said Graham had suggested it was time to make a deal with Iran but had no similar suggestion for the Russia-U...
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