Israeli Training Ukrainian Forces

Israel’s largest and most authoritative newspaper Yediot Ahronot published in its political supplement of 24 September 2014 extensive material about a military instructor from Israel in the Ukrainian army in the anti-terrorist operation zone. In a detailed interview with the journalist Edward Dox, the trainer Alex said he served in combat units of the Israeli Defense Forces and returned to Ukraine to protect it from the Russian invasion.

Alex, 34, was invited by Boris Filatov, the vice governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, and has trained more than three thousand Ukrainian soldiers in Israel Defense Force techniques.

Alex, born in Odessa, describes the chaos and disorder in the Ukrainian army at the beginning of summer 2014. One soldier who survived the battle near Ilovaysk called Alex and told him, "Your training saved my life."

The article also describes religious Jews such as Asher Cherkassky, 44, from Dnipropetrovsk who volunteered for service in the “Dnipro” battalion. Cherkassky lived in Crimea, but escaped after the Russian occupation. He declared in the interview, "It is my religious and public duty to protect my family and my country from foreign invasion."

Photo: Asher Cherkassky

Cherkassky has no kosher food in the battalion and eats canned food from home and buckwheat cereal. The article notes the rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk Shmuel Kaminetsky supports Asher's decision to join the Ukrainian battalion.

The article describes Dnipropetrovsk as a city with a prosperous Jewish community and wealthy Jewish oligarchs such Victor Pinchuk, Ihor Kolomoysky, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, and others.

By Shimon Briman