Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked Sunday on an official visit to Ukraine a month ahead of the Jewish state's national elections.
Netanyahu said he was traveling 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 in 20 years.
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Netanyahu said, "We have hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens from Ukraine who constitute a living bridge between the two countries, and the link between us is tightening. The president and I will discuss the establishment of a free trade zone and a pension agreement, as well as a series of other issues that will further strengthen the excellent connection between the two countries.
Zelensky, who is Jewish, has hinted at admiration for the Jewish State, invoking its defensive prowess in his inauguration speech in May.
"We must become Icelanders in soccer, Israelis in defending our land, Japanese in technology," he was quoted by the BBC as saying in a pledge to protect the "protect the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."
More than a million people from former Soviet republics came to Israel after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
While in Ukraine, Netanyahu will also visit the memorial at Babi Yar, the site where Nazi soldiers and local collaborators shot and killed over 33,000 Ukrainian Jews in April 1941.
Analysts say that Netanyahu is looking to bolster the standing of his Likud party among Israelis of Ukrainian origin ahead of the Sept. 17 election.
Such voters have historically been inclined to vote for the nationalist and pro-Russian Yisrael Beytenu party, led by Netanyahu rival 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 prompting a repeated round of elections.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
