The Guardian reveals that Israel prevented Ukraine from buying the “Pegasus” spyware

Israel has prevented Ukraine from buying the Pegasus spyware for fear of angering Russian officials over selling advanced hacking tools to a regional enemy.

The British newspaper The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Israel has prevented Ukraine from buying the "Pegasus" spyware program, fearing that Russian officials will be angry at selling advanced hacking tools to a regional enemy.

The newspaper reported, citing an informed source, that since at least 2019, Ukrainian officials have pressured Israel to try to persuade it to grant Ukraine a license to use the "Pegasus" spyware.

Those efforts were "rejected," the source said, and the company that created the software, which is run by the Israeli Defense Ministry, was not allowed to market or sell the company's spyware to Ukraine.

Pegasus is spy software developed and sold by Israel-based NSO Group.

There were international reports about the use of the program to penetrate the phones of officials, activists, dissidents and journalists around the world.

Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a speech to Israeli Knesset members, criticized Israel's stance on the war in his country, saying that Israel should "provide answers" about why it did not deliver weapons to Ukraine, or impose sanctions on the Russians.

According to the newspaper, a senior official in the Ukrainian intelligence (which she did not name) said that Israel's decision "confused" Ukrainian officials.

The official said he had no "overall view" of why Ukraine was being denied access to the "powerful" spying tool.

Other informed sources said that Israel's decision not to sell the program reflects its "reluctance" to provoke Russia, with which it has close intelligence relations, according to the newspaper.

The sources added that Israel fears that giving Ukraine the ability to target mobile phone numbers based in Russia through the Pegasus system will be seen as an "aggressive act" against Russian intelligence services.

For his part, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailo Fedorov said that the government of Israel "is not currently involved in any discussion or facilitation related to offensive technology," according to the newspaper.

He confirmed that they have "continuous talks" with many other Israeli companies in the market.

And Human Rights Watch says in a report earlier this year that the software is surreptitiously downloaded to cell phones.

Once installed on the device, the customer is able to turn it into a powerful monitoring tool with full access to the camera, calls, photos, videos, microphone, email, text messages, and other features, allowing the target person and contacts to be monitored.

"This is a sophisticated and sophisticated attack technology that is effective at hacking devices and is also difficult for the target to detect or prevent," Human Rights Watch added.