Israel reportedly refused to sell Pegasus spyware to Ukraine for fear of angering Russia – Observer

will be for Israel Prevent Ukraine from getting controversial software Pegasus cyber espionageIt was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, fearing to anger Russia by selling a powerful spy tool to an enemy country.

Information provided by a British newspaper Watchman And the American newspaper Washington Postwho made A joint investigation into this matter.

According to those newspapers, Israel refused to sell Pegasus to Ukraine to avoid a backlash from Russia, a revelation that illustrates how relations between Tel Aviv and Moscow have undermined Ukraine’s military capacity – even though it knows it conflicts with the strategic priorities of the United States, Israel’s allies and allied with Ukraine.

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Citing sources familiar with the operation, the Guardian and Washington Post explained that, at least since 2019, Ukraine has tried to get Israel to sell it software for electronic espionage, But the Israeli government prevented NSO Group from selling it to the Kyiv government.

Pegasus One of the most advanced cyber espionage tools in the world. Developed in Israel, it has already been used by many countries around the world Journalists, political opponents and criminal suspects.

Practically speaking, Pegasus acts like a virus that is downloaded to a target’s cell phone through a click (often unintended) on a link sent by some communication platform. From there you can get detailed information about the target connections. – Although the company vehemently denies that software It can be used to spy on citizens.

Hungary, for example, confessed in november They’ve got software To spy on opponents and journalists. But other cases have also become known to the public, Including the use of Pegasus against Catalan separatists in Spain. in the United States of America, The FBI also assumed that it had acquired Pegasusbut only for testing for potential threats to software.

According to sources heard by the Guardian and the Washington Post, the NSO Group, which is under the responsibility of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, receives permission from the Israeli government to show Pegasus to a foreign government – then Need permission from Tel Aviv to sell software.

In the Ukrainian case, Israel prevented the NSO from proceeding with the sale of Pegasus to Kyiv. According to the same sources, Tel Aviv is afraid of angering Moscow and Endangering close relations with Russia, which is beneficial to Israel in the context of the Middle East (Israel now, for example, needs Russia to sign the Iran nuclear deal.)

Those sources told the two newspapers that giving Ukraine the ability to target Russian targets with the powerful Pegasus missile could be seen by Moscow as an act of aggression.

This was not the first time such a scenario had occurred. In 2019, the NSO had banned Estonia – a NATO member state that had acquired Pegasus – from using software against Russian targets.