A US attempt to have the UN Security Council call for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip failed on Friday after Russia and China vetoed the US resolution, which includes some of the strongest statements made by Washington since the beginning of the war.

The resolution reflected the Biden administration’s growing frustration both with the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and with Israel’s conduct in a war that has killed some 30,000 people and left much of the enclave in ruins. The government is putting pressure on Israel not to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge, and to allow more aid to enter the area.

But international friction, including over Washington’s past use of its veto power in the Security Council and its refusal to call for a permanent ceasefire, doomed the resolution. Eleven members voted in favor of the resolution, but Russia and China – the permanent members – voted against, as did Algeria. Guyana abstained.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who toured Israel on Friday, expressed disappointment that the resolution failed.

“I think we were trying to show the international community a sense of urgency about reaching a ceasefire linked to the release of hostages, something that everyone, including the countries that vetoed the resolution, should have been able to get behind,” he said. said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his position that, despite growing international criticism, his country’s ground forces would launch an offensive against Rafah to root out Hamas, the group that led the October 7 attack that precipitated Israel’s invasion of Gaza. The Biden administration has repeatedly said that an incursion into Rafah, which borders Egypt, would cause heavy civilian casualties and hamper aid delivery.

“We have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday after a meeting in Tel Aviv with Mr Blinken. “And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the US. But if we have to, we will do it alone.”

The US resolution states that the Security Council “determines the need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire.” Representatives of the three dissenting countries and Guyana said it did not go far enough in demanding or enforcing a ceasefire.

Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, said a reference in the measure to reducing harm to civilians in “ongoing and future operations” in Gaza implied a “license for continued bloodshed.”

“The text presented today does not convey a clear message of peace,” Mr Bendjama said.

After the vote, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield defended the resolution, which condemned Hamas, saying it was “put forward in good faith after consultation with all Council members and after multiple rounds of editing.”

She said Russia and China vetoed the resolution for two reasons: they refused to condemn Hamas and they “simply did not want to vote for a resolution drafted by the United States because it would rather see us fail than see it Council would succeed. .”

Whether or not Russia and China were motivated by a desire to thwart or embarrass the United States, it is clear that their relations with Washington are as hostile as ever before, with conflict over a host of issues, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chinese plans for Taiwan, economic sanctions and trade tariffs. In 2022, Russia vetoed two Security Councils that condemned its behavior in Ukraine.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield said the US draft would have placed the weight of the Security Council behind diplomatic efforts “to secure an immediate and lasting ceasefire as part of an agreement leading to the release of all hostages” and “enabling much more humanitarian assistance.” to enter Gaza.”

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, had denounced the US-backed measure before the vote, calling it a “hypocritical initiative” and “a watered-down formulation” regarding a ceasefire.

“To save the lives of peaceful Palestinians, this is not enough,” he said. The draft, he claimed, was written with US political interests in mind, to “play to voters and encourage them.”

He urged Council members to vote against the resolution, saying: “We cannot allow the Security Council to become an instrument to further Washington’s destructive policies in the Middle East.”

The United States had vetoed three previous resolutions demanding a halt to fighting in Gaza, arguing that the measures could disrupt hostage negotiations and undermine Israel’s right to defend itself after the 7 Hamas-led attack to defend October vigorously. Voting in the Council, the United States was the only one to vote against the resolutions. Russia and Britain abstained in the first vote in October, and Britain abstained in December and February.

But as the death toll in Gaza has risen and hunger and disease have worsened across the territory, President Biden and other US officials have become increasingly critical of Mr Netanyahu and his handling of the war, calling on him to provide more aid the Gaza Strip. Gaza and to do more to protect civilians.

After meeting on Friday with Mr. Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet, Mr. Blinken said at a news conference that an immediate ceasefire would allow the release of hostages and “ramp up” humanitarian aid to alleviate acute suffering to relieve the population. territory has 2.2 million citizens.

Mr Blinken, concluding his sixth trip to the Middle East since the start of the war, warned that a major military ground operation in Rafah was not the way to guarantee Israel’s long-term security.

“It risks further isolating Israel around the world and endangering its long-term security and status,” he said, adding that US officials looked forward to meeting with Israeli officials in Washington next week “to discuss about another way to achieve those objectives. .”

Mr Netanyahu said in his statement that Israel recognized the need to protect civilians and ensure humanitarian aid to Gaza, but was determined to go ahead with the planned invasion.

Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main political rival, appeared to endorse this view, saying in a statement that Israel “must dismantle Hamas’ military infrastructure, including in Rafah.” Mr. Gantz, an opposition leader who crossed parliamentary lines to join the war cabinet, thanked Mr. Blinken “for his support for Israel and the deep American commitment to its security.”

U.S. officials said they believed no operation in Rafah by the Israeli military was imminent, giving the United States time to either reach a hostage deal that would broker a temporary ceasefire or propose other options to the Israelis at meetings next week. .

Israel is not yet prepared to push its forces into Rafah, which will be a difficult ground operation to carry out, they said.

As the Secretary of State made the final stop of a multi-part tour of the Middle East, William J. Burns, the director of the CIA, traveled to Qatar to participate in talks aimed at reaching an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would mark the beginning of a time-limited ceasefire. fire and an exchange of Palestinians captured by Israel for Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Speaking to reporters in Cairo on Thursday, Mr Blinken said the gap between Hamas and Israel’s negotiating positions was “narrowing” but that striking a deal would be difficult.

Julian E Barnes reporting contributed.

Oleksii Yukov spends many of his nights dodging drones, navigating minefields and hoping not to be targeted by Russian artillery as he races to collect the remains of fallen soldiers from the battlefield.

In just three shattered tree lines around the devastated village of Klishchiivka outside Bakhmut, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have engaged in see-saw battles for more than a year, he collected 300 bodies. Almost all of them were Russians, he said, left behind in a maelstrom of violence where the struggle to stay alive often outweighs concern for the dead.

Mr. Yusov has been collecting bodies from the bloody fields and battered villages of eastern Ukraine for a decade. He is now the head of a group of civilian volunteers called Platsdarm, and has witnessed more deaths than he would like to remember.

But as Russia continues a slow offensive with major human consequences, Yusov says the toll is still shocking.

He said he found bodies stacked four or five deep in trenches. Men who died wearing summer uniforms are buried beneath men in winter clothing.

Sometimes Russian soldiers take the bodies, put them in large pits and “wrap them up because you can’t breathe around them,” he said, referring to the stench. “They don’t know what to do with it.”

The Russian army’s willingness to sacrifice thousands of soldiers in a blunt attempt to seize territory has been a defining feature of the war’s final year – reflected in the steep losses that marked the capture of two Ukrainian cities: Bakhmut last May And Avdiivka in February.

To get a sense of the scale of the death, The New York Times traveled with Mr. Yukov’s team of body collectors, interviewed Ukrainian soldiers about life in the midst of death and embedded with military drone units that carried out a unedited footage of some of the deadliest massacres. grounds.

The best time to retrieve the bodies is in bad weather, with fog and rain, Mr. Yukov said, because Russian drones do not fly into them. He likes to get close to where he needs to be at night, but the final move must be timed very carefully. It is often canceled.

Seen from drones over battlefields in eastern Ukraine, Russian soldiers can be seen frozen at the moment of their death, motionless on frost-covered, cratered fields. They are scattered on top of destroyed armored vehicles or next to destroyed tanks.

Many Ukrainian soldiers have also died in the bloody battles that take place every day, but Mr Yukov said most of the bodies he collects are Russians left behind.

“We are dealing with the reality of war, not war on paper,” he said. “I say specifically what I see: for every five or six bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, we find almost 80 Russian bodies.”

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

With U.S. military support cut off and Ukrainian forces running low on ammunition, more Ukrainian soldiers are dying under brutal attacks from a better-equipped, more-strong army.

“Over the past two to three months we have noticed serious changes,” he said, referring to the growing number of victims in Ukraine.

Finding the dead is not always possible because fighting takes place along the front, sometimes for weeks or months. But repeated visits to areas near the most violent hotspots – along with the testimonies of Ukrainian soldiers, medics and volunteers tending to the dead, the accounts of Russian military bloggers and visual images released by soldiers on both sides – provide a searing window . what death looks like on the battlefield.

After Mr. Yukov collects the bodies, he takes them, if they are civilians, to the local morgue. If they are soldiers from either army, he hands them over to the Ukrainian army, with whom he works closely.

The Russians’ remains could be exchanged for the remains of fallen Ukrainian soldiers – one of the rare issues on which the warring armies still cooperate.

There are no reliably accurate estimates of the number of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed in the past two years. President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

He also claimed that Russia had suffered 500,000 casualties, including 180,000 troops killed. His figures cannot be independently verified.

Mr Zelensky’s accounting of the Ukrainian victims differs sharply from that of the Ukrainian victims estimates from US officialswhich last summer said nearly 70,000 Ukrainians had been killed and 100,000 to 120,000 injured.

In Russia, according to a well-documented Soviet-era playbook, the staggering amount of losses has been carefully hidden from public view by an authoritarian government that controls major media outlets.

Estimates from various Western intelligence agencies put the number of dead and wounded for Russia at somewhere between 300,000 and 350,000, with most estimates of well over 100,000 dead.

As the ranks of the Russian army have been strengthened by conscripts from poor villages, ethnic minorities have been forced to enlist and convicts released from prison in exchange for fights in Ukraine, the Kremlin has so far managed to prevent the costs of its war from hitting the most privileged parts of society.

“I think people understand, but are afraid of the truth,” Mr. Yukov said of the Russian public. “It is easier for them to believe in propaganda,” he said. “But what we see are enormous losses on the Russian side, catastrophically large.”

With tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers killed in the past two years, the toll can feel overwhelming and abstract. But for the soldiers at the front, death is part of everyday life.

Ukrainian soldiers sometimes struggle to put into words what it is like to kill wave after wave of attackers, only to see more come after them.

Junior Sergeant Pavlo Zinenko, 36, was maintaining fiber optic cables when the Russians invaded. He rushed to join the 128th Territorial Defense Brigade after seeing the atrocities Russian troops committed in Bucha.

“I was willing to give my life to ensure that no more civilians would die on our side,” he said. “But over time, when you see so much death, especially when your close friends die in front of your eyes, it really breaks a person.”

“Death is not frightening,” he said. “It’s just sickening.”

When he encounters dead Russian soldiers, he said, he has “no feelings, no emotions.”

“The only thought that comes to mind is that if they’re dead, that means they can’t kill anyone else here,” he said. “Death is generally not a pleasant phenomenon, and when you are surrounded by it, the impact is even greater.”

Vitalii Sholudko, a 20-year-old machine gunner with the 128th, said he didn’t think about death until a Russian missile crashed into a building near his home in Dnipro two years ago.

“I saw my mother crying, and my sister,” he said. “What can a child do? There was nothing I could do but take up arms and defend my family.”

Now he has slept in trenches full of dead Russian soldiers, he said.

“We slept, ate and kept watch next to the bodies,” he said. The battle was too fierce to worry about moving it.

“There was no time to think, and you couldn’t afford to think about someone dying or feeling sorry for them,” he said. “It’s you or them.”

Mr Yukov has been collecting the dead from the Donbas battlefields for more than a decade, working on both sides of the front line until the full-scale invasion in 2022 made it impossible to get to the Russian side. As a civilian, he does not have to adhere to military restrictions on discussing Ukrainian victims.

His dedication to his mission – regardless of what uniform the dead wore during their lives – has earned him the widespread respect and trust of the Ukrainian military. His work is funded by private donations.

Mr. Yukov, who lost an eye last year after a mine exploded during a mission, said he is often asked why he risks his life to recover bodies.

“It is important for me to take them all home because we are human, and we must remember to remain human,” he said.

Knowing that his work provides grieving families with a small measure of comfort and some closure helps him sleep at night. But something deeper drives him.

“When we talk about humanity and human rights,” he said, “we must remember that even the dead have rights.”

Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting from eastern Ukraine. Natalia Novosolova And Anastasia Kuznietsova reporting contributed.

Russian missiles flew into Kiev early Thursday in the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, wounding at least 13 people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facilities. local officials.

The Ukrainian Air Force said air defense systems had intercepted all 31 Russian missiles aimed at Kiev. However, debris from the downed rockets fell in several parts of the city, causing injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far.

“Such terror continues day and night,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a speech message on social media including a video of firefighters dousing burning buildings with water.

The attack began in the early morning with loud explosions that woke residents around 5 a.m. as air defense systems went into action. Many people rushed to seek shelter in metro stations. Several orange fireballs lit the sky, apparently the result of missile interceptions.

The air raid siren ended at 6:10 am, just as the sun rose, exposing the damage.

Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kiev, said on Telegram that rocket debris had caused fires in at least three residential buildings and parking lots. He said emergency services had been deployed to help the victims. Four people were hospitalized, the city’s military administration said.

Photos of the aftermath of the attack released by Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine, and local authorities showed burned out cars in front of a building with a facade blackened by fire, a large hole at the foot of a pink building with all windows shattered, and a destroyed house on charred ground.

In the Podilskyi district, home to industrial facilities that Russia has targeted in the past, a plume of black smoke rose early in the morning, indicating a hit. said Mr. Klitschko A fire had broken out at an electricity substation in the area.

Ukrainian officials rarely confirm attacks on strategic industrial and military targets.

Thursday’s attack came at a difficult time for the Ukrainian military, with Russian forces continuing ground attacks on several locations along the more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) front line.

Faced with troop and ammunition shortages, Ukraine has struggled to contain Russian attacks in the east and south. Ukrainian officials have pledged to launch a counteroffensive this year, but experts say the military has still not received the kind of weapons that would allow it to regain the initiative on the battlefield, while US aid is held up in Congress.

On Wednesday, President Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan made an unannounced trip to Kiev in an effort to demonstrate the White House’s continued commitment to Ukraine’s defense. He urged Republican lawmakers to approve the stalled billions of dollars in aid package.

“It has already gone on too long,” Mr. Sullivan told reporters during a briefing at Ukraine’s presidential office. “And I know that – you know that.”

Thursday’s attack on Kiev echoed a strategy Russia used in airstrikes in late December that involved overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses with multiple launches of different types of missiles, including ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

Russia has launched relatively few large-scale missile attacks in recent months, despite a capacity to produce more than 115 long-range missiles per month. Ukrainian officials.

Mr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine urgently needs more air defense systems from Western allies. He pointed to recent rocket attacks on the cities of Kharkov, Odesa and Kherson, which claimed many lives.

“We need the support of our partners,” Mr. Zelensky said. “We must prove that terror is always the loser.”

Oleksandra Mykolyshyn reporting contributed.

Russian missiles flew into Kiev early Thursday in what appeared to be the biggest attack on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, wounding at least eight people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facilities. local officials.

From about 5 a.m., loud explosions were heard in the capital as Ukrainian air defense systems tried to repel the attack. Air raid warnings ended at 6:10 am; the extent of the damage was unclear. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched a barrage of weapons, including hypersonic and ballistic missiles.

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev, said on the Telegram messaging app that debris from missiles downed by air defense systems had fallen in several parts of the city, causing fires in at least three residential buildings and parking lots. He said emergency services had been deployed.

The airstrike took place on a difficult time for the Ukrainian armywith Russian forces continuing ground attacks at several locations along the front line spanning more than 600 miles.

Under immense pressure to come up with billions of dollars to shore up Ukraine’s military and replenish its members’ dwindling arsenals, the European Union said Wednesday it had devised a legal way to use frozen Russian assets to help arm Ukraine. just as it was considering other mechanisms to strengthen the defense industry.

The developments mark a major milestone, with U.S. funding for Ukraine remaining stuck in Congress and Ukrainian defenses sagging as shortages of ammunition, artillery shells and missiles force rationing on the battlefield.

Although the EU is exploring a number of different ways to find money for defense purchases, they all face hurdles.

The goal of “making Russia pay” for Ukraine’s arsenal and its reconstruction has become a popular slogan among allies, but translating it into actual policy has proven difficult, largely due to legal concerns about liquidating Russian state assets that frozen by sanctions.

Now, after months of political wrangling, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has found a way to use the profits from these frozen Russian assets for Ukraine’s benefit, most of which goes to military aid to Ukraine.

How the plan will work

The plan, which will be submitted for approval to EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday, would provide Ukraine with up to 3 billion euros, or about $3.25 billion, or even 15 billion euros ($16.3 billion) between 2023 and 2027 ) could yield between 2023 and 2027, depending on the situation. market conditions. The first payment to Kiev could be made as early as July, the commission said on Wednesday.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, Western countries took the unusual step of freezing more than $330 billion in Russian central bank assets abroad. The largest part of this – more than 217 billion dollars – is located in the European Union. With payments to Russia blocked by sanctions, Moscow has been unable to access these assets, sell them or benefit from the interest earned on them.

As such, the cash generated from the assets has been stuck abroad, with a large majority in Belgium held by Euroclear, a financial services company. Under the EU plan, 97 percent of the profits generated by these assets would go to Ukraine from February 15. Companies like Euroclear would keep 3 percent to fund ongoing and future lawsuits by Russia seeking to recover its assets and revenues.

This year, 90 percent of that windfall would go to financing weapons for Ukraine, the committee said, while the rest would be set aside for the bloc’s fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

“The Russians won’t be very happy,” said Josep Borrell Fontelles, the A top EU diplomat said this this week. The amount of money, he added, “is not extraordinary, but not negligible.”

An earlier version of this plan was postponed twice during 2023 due to disagreements between member states Concerns of the European Central Bank. The bank, the eurozone’s version of the US Federal Reserve, warned that using assets from another country’s central bank could damage Europe’s reputation as a safe place to store money, undermining its ambition bloc could harm the international use of its common currency, the euro.

As Mr Borrell had predicted, the Russians were outraged by the proposal. “This is outright banditry and theft,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, Russian news agency TASS reported.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was more reserved. “Europeans are fully aware of the damage such decisions can do to both their economy and their image, and their reputation as reliable guarantors of the inviolability of property,” Tass quoted him as saying.

How else can the EU raise money for war and weapons?

Revenue from frozen Russian assets is a start, but the EU will need billions more to continue supporting Ukraine and strengthening its own defense, especially with the looming possibility of a complete break in US aid to Ukraine under the presidency of Trump.

The arsenals of the bloc’s 27 members have been depleted after two years of arms and ammunition transfers to Ukraine. Just as importantly, Europe’s defense industry says it needs more certainty and upfront investment before it can ramp up production.

Building an integrated military industry is new territory for the European Union, which from its inception has been primarily an economic and trade alliance.

But the need for Europeans to invest in defense has become more urgent following recent comments by former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. He said last month that he would oppose NATO’s defense of European members who have underpaid for the alliance’s common defense needs, and that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever they want” in Europe.

The Europeans have taken note. “Europe has not invested enough in its security and defense for decades,” Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, which sets policy priorities, said in a letter to EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday. “As we face the greatest security threat since the Second World War, it is high time we take radical and concrete steps to be defense ready and put the EU economy on a war footing.

“This means spending more and buying more together, therefore more efficiently,” he added. “We must also help the defense industry access private and public funds.”

At Thursday’s summit, EU leaders will discuss the idea of ​​letting the bloc’s development and climate bank, the European Investment Bank, venture into defense procurement – a major shift in the strategy and purpose of climate change and green energy , highlighting the urgency felt everywhere. the EU to strengthen military capabilities.

Some EU countries would like to see the bloc jointly issue bonds to secure cheap defense financing. But this is not popular among the richer EU countries, especially Germany. The bloc also maintains the European Peace Facility, an off-budget pool of money that is slowly being tapped for defense purchases for Ukraine. France wants this fund to pay only for equipment produced in Europe, which is seen as a major limitation as Europe’s defense industry says it is unable to produce fast enough to meet growing needs.

Meanwhile, EU countries operating outside the EU’s restrictions and structures have been able to move more quickly to support Ukraine, underscoring the bloc’s rigidity. The Czech Republic is leading a buyers group with other EU allies and has already secured 300,000 grenades for Ukraine as supplies are dangerously low.

Biden administration officials have made regular trips to Europe to discuss using Russian resources to help Ukraine. At a meeting of treasury ministers in Brazil last month, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said direct asset seizures were a possibility and suggested there was a legal justification for it.

But the meeting was marred by divisions among policymakers. Some, such as French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, argued that taking assets directly from Russia’s central bank would be a violation of international law.

Eshe Nelson contributed reporting from Frankfurt, and Alan Rappeport from Washington.

Although Israel is heavily dependent on support from the United States, Germany and other Western countries, Israel has been noticeably out of step when it comes to relations with Russia during its war of conquest in Ukraine.

Long before Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, the country refused Ukrainian requests to send weapons or impose widespread sanctions on Russia, including halting flights to the country. Despite the eagerness of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, himself Jewish, to visit the country and show solidarity after the attack, he never made the trip.

The reasons reflect Israel’s unique security needs and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delicate relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a primary supporter of Israel’s enemies in the region who Israel cannot afford to offend.

As Israel’s war with Hamas enters its sixth month, Netanyahu needs Putin’s goodwill to contain Iran in particular and continue attacking Iranian targets in Syria while trying to prevent the armed forces from that Russia maintains there will be harmed.

So Mr. Netanyahu has consistently given the Russian leader wide leeway, even at the risk of alienating Israel’s key allies in Europe and the United States.

“Israel is walking a delicate tightrope,” said Emmanuel Navon, the Israel-based executive director of ELNET Israel, a nongovernmental organization that aims to strengthen diplomatic ties between Israel and Europe.

But even though Israel treads lightly when it comes to Russia, the relationship remains deeply lopsided. Mr. Putin has been an outspoken critic of Israel, using condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza to appeal to the Global South, a term for an informal group of developing and underdeveloped countries, some of whom have been critical of the United States, Europe and the current world order.

After the Hamas attack on October 7, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, Putin said nothing for three days. Then, without expressing condolences for Israel or the victims, the Russian leader criticized the United States, calling October 7 “a clear example of the failure of American policy in the Middle East.”

Since then, Russia has been outspoken in condemning Israel’s war against Hamas, which has killed more than 31,000 people, including fighters, but the majority of the total were women and children, according to Gaza health authorities.

“When October 7 came, Putin found a ready-made issue, not to break ties with Israel, but to begin to put distance” between Russia and Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a former American diplomat at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Russia has done so at the United Nations Israel’s right to self-defense was questioned and repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire to halt Israel’s military campaign. Russia has also amplified pro-Hamas positions online.

Russian officials have expressed sympathy or support for South Africa’s accusation at the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide, which Israel denies.

At the same time, Russia has also used the war in Gaza to defend its own war in Ukraine. The West, it argues, has been hypocritical in condemning Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine while at the same time supporting what it sees as similar Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza.

In late October, Russia hosted a Hamas delegation in Moscow, which the Israeli Foreign Ministry called “reprehensible.” In late February, Russia hosted a new Hamas delegation for a meeting of Palestinians in Moscow.

After a December phone call between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Putin, which Mr. Carnegie’s Mr. Miller said reflected the tension between the two nations, Mr. Netanyahu said he had criticized Russia for its support of Iran, while Mr. Putin said he had criticized Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In the past, Mr. Netanyahu had boasted of his excellent relationship with Mr. Putin and his self-proclaimed ability to deal with great powers. Now “that relationship is more of a burden than a benefit,” Mr. Miller said.

Last Friday, Russia’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, Anatoly Viktorov, was called to the Israeli Foreign Ministry to protest comments made by Russian officials at the United Nations. sowing doubt on a UN report supporting findings on Hamas sexual violence. In beginning of FebruaryRussia has summoned Israel’s ambassador to Moscow, Simona Halperin, over “unacceptable comments” they say would disrupt Russia’s foreign policy.

The deepening of ties between Russia and Iran during the war in Ukraine has also raised concerns among Israeli and US officials. Tehran has supplied Moscow with drones, missiles and other weaponry.

Arkady Mil-Man, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia and now at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said Mr. Netanyahu seemed to ignore that “Israel is seen by the Russians as an enemy.”

The relationship between Israel and Russia would only deteriorate, he said, because “the Russians took a clearly anti-Israel side.”

But Israel can hardly afford a breakdown in relations.

A significant number of Israeli citizens emigrated from the former Soviet Union and made their lives in Israel. But Israel still has an interest in caring for the Jewish population that remains in Russia. In late October, a mob stormed a Russian airport to search for Jews on an incoming flight from Israel.

“We want to keep the door open,” said Sarah Fainberg, director of Tel Aviv University’s research program on the role of Russia and China in the Middle East. It was important that the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel, remain operational in Russia, she said: “We want to be able to save this population in times of need.”

While anti-Semitism is not new in Russia, Ms. Fainberg said, Mr. Putin’s new antagonism toward Israel has raised concerns. “We used to think there was an anti-Semitic Russia, but a pro-Jewish president,” she said. “Now things have changed.”