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Netanyahu visits Ukraine ahead of September poll
JERUSALEM, Aug 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu embarked Sunday on an official visit to Ukraine — from which many
Israelis hail — a month ahead of the Jewish state’s elections.
Netanyahu said he was travelling at the invitation of Ukraine’s recently
elected President Volodymyr Zelensky, in what Israeli media reported was the
first visit to the country by an Israeli premier for 20 years.
In a video released on YouTube, Netanyahu said the two men would discuss
the “establishment of a free trade area, the pensions agreement and a host of
other issues that will further strengthen the excellent relationship between
the two countries”.
More than a million people from former Soviet republics came to Israel
after the Iron Curtain fell.
Israeli society assimilated the equivalent of a fifth of its population.
Netanyahu also plans to visit the Babi Yar memorial, the site of a major
Holocaust massacre in April 1941 that saw more than 33,000 Ukrainian Jews
shot dead by Nazi troops.
Analysts say Netanyahu is seeking to bolster the standing of his Likud
party among Israelis of Ukrainian origin ahead of legislative polls due on
September 17.
Such voters have historically been inclined to vote for the nationalist
and pro-Russian Yisrael Beitenu party, led by Avigdor Lieberman.
Netanyahu and his right-wing and religious allies won the most seats in an
April election but failed to forge a viable coalition.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0859 hrs