In February 2022, the New York Times revealed that Israel refused to sell Pegasus spyware to Ukraine in August 2021. According to The Guardian, The Washington Post and Haaretz, Ukraine engaged in discussions with Israel to acquire the spyware as far back as in 2019 but NSO Group – which is regulated by the Israeli ministry of defense – was never allowed to sell Pegasus to Ukraine (Israel did not answer most of the media’s questions and Ukraine refused to confirm it had sought to acquire Pegasus but did acknowledge that it had tried to acquire Israeli technology).