An Israeli-designed missile detection system that would give Ukrainians more time to take shelter from Russian missile attacks is being tested in Kyiv and may be activated within two months, Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, Yevhen Korniychuk, said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Israel agreed to share technologies with Ukraine last year even though it held off on meeting Kyiv's requests for weaponry.
One of those requests had been for the Iron Dome, a short-range interceptor that Israel regularly uses to shoot down rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
Ambassador Korniychuk said the system, fed with data from Ukrainian radars, is now being tested in the capital.
"It allows for identifying the different objects, including ballistic missiles, and calculates where they will go and basically that allows us to close certain parts of the country rather than the whole country," he told Reuters.
When complete, the system will warn residents of areas about to be struck by Russian missiles or drones, either by sounding sirens nearby or with alerts on cellphones, he said.
The system would allow more precisely tailored messages that would sound the alarms in individual neighbourhoods under threat. "It will allow us to close Kyiv sectorially," Korniychuk said.
"Some residents will be told on their phones how much time they have to jump into their shelter, while in other parts of Kyiv people will be able to sit and have coffee. What I know from our experts is that they have already started work and I do hope that, in accordance with our internal schedule, it will take another month or two to get it working in Kyiv," he said, adding that five other cities would follow.