Israel tests missile warning system ahead of deployment to Ukraine

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Kornichuk said Wednesday that Kyiv started testing the Israeli-developed missile alarm system aimed at warning civilians when missiles, rockets or other projectiles are launched in the area where they are located. 

The promise to assist Ukraine with a warning system for civilians was made already under the former Bennett-Lapid government, but concrete steps to advancing the delivery of the system were taken during the visit of Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to Kyiv in mid-March when he met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Preparing for Cohen’s trip to Kyiv, the government in Jerusalem approved the budget for the development and implementation of such a system. 

Israel itself has been using a civilian alarm system for many years, especially against rocket fire from Gaza, and against missile rockets from the Lebanese border. Still, the system had to be adapted to the geographical parameters of different areas in Ukraine in order to operate optimally, a process that took a few months to execute. The system now delivered to Kyiv should identify the firing of rockets, missiles and other sorts of projectiles to calculate where they are expected to fall and how much time people in that area have to seek shelter.

Announcing that testing of the alarm system has started, Kornichuk said, “Hopefully they will finalize [the warning system] quickly and we can copy-paste it to all major cities. The Ukrainian government controls six cities with over a million residents, and we will definitely be using Israeli technology to help save people’s lives.” He added, “This is very important for our civilian and military infrastructure. It is equipment that will allow us to save lives.”