Israel to provide Ukraine with missile warning system - but no Iron Dome

In the intervening period, Israeli and Ukrainian military officials have reportedly met several times in Poland to discuss deployment and adapting the system to a country that is far bigger than Israel and being targeted by more advanced missiles.

The system set for use in Ukraine will feature alerts without interception capabilities, unlike the Iron Dome system in Israel.

Ukraine has previously urged Israel to supply it with the Iron Dome system, but Jerusalem has so far refused, as Israeli leaders seek to avoid overtly antagonising Russia.

This is likely due to Israel’s strategic need to maintain freedom of operations over Syria, where Russian forces largely control the airspace.

The missile alert system will first be deployed in Kyiv, then expand to other Ukrainian cities if deemed a success, with the aim of making it operational over the summer.

The Israeli warning system uses a mix of radar and electro-optic devices to detect rocket, missile, and drone launches, classify the size and the threat they represent, and pinpoint on a map the areas that are in danger.

Citizens in those areas receive warnings through sirens, alerts on their phones and messages on TV and radio.

The system has been credited with saving hundreds of lives in Israel amid attacks from terror groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, which have launched thousands of projectiles at Israeli cities over the years.

In recent years the system’s accuracy has been upgraded so that it can limit its alerts to specific areas of large cities.