Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba apologized after falsely accusing El Al Israeli Airlines of continuing to accept payments from a Russian credit card company.
“Indeed, the ‘Mir’ payment button remained on the website, but the use of it was blocked,” Kuleba tweeted on Tuesday. “I am grateful to El Al for its important humanitarian operations and convey my apologies.”
Indeed, the ‘Mir’ payment button remained on the website, but the use of it was blocked. I am grateful to El Al for its important humanitarian operations and convey my apologies.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 8, 2022
Kuleba had accused the Israeli flag carrier of taking payments via the Russian banking system 'Mir' in order to evade the sanctions slapped on Russia's international financial systems.
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"While the world sanctions Russia for its barbaric atrocities in Ukraine, some prefer to make money soaked in Ukrainian blood,” Kuleba tweeted on Monday. “Here is @EL_AL_ISRAEL accepting payments in Russian banking system ‘Mir’ designed to evade sanctions. Immoral and a blow to Ukrainian-Israeli relations.”
El Al, however, said that they blocked the use of MIR cards on February 28.
“It is unfortunate that a simple check was not conducted before the misleading tweet, because the facts are totally different,” the airline stated.
In addition, El Al helped evacuate thousands of Israelis and others from Kyiv and was one of the last airlines to stop flying out of Ukraine, and helped fly 100 tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine through a third country, the airline’s spokesperson said.
“El Al flies to Russia at the request of the Government of Israel and we will continue to evacuate Israelis and Jews from Russia, as long as it is possible,” the airline added.