“We are paying attention to the antihistorical statements made by (Israeli) Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, which explain in detail the current government’s decision to support the neoNazi regime in Kyiv,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Unfortunately, history knows tragic examples of cooperation between Jews and Nazis.”
On Monday (2nd) the Israeli minister described the statements made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday (1st) as “scandalous, unforgivable and a terrible historical error”.
Lavrov stated in an interview with an Italian TV channel that the German dictator Adolf Hitler was of Jewish origin. The statement sparked outrage within the Israeli government, which summoned the Russian ambassador to the country to seek clarification and demanded a formal apology.
This Tuesday (3), Russian diplomacy repeated the arguments, claiming that “the President’s (Zelensky) Jewish origin is not a guarantee of protection from rampant neoNazism in the country.”
Russia has repeatedly reiterated that it wants to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine, a former Soviet republic ruled by a proWestern executive branch, thereby justifying the February 24 offensive against the country.
The Russian government also accuses Israel of “ignoring the epidemic of destruction and desecration of monuments to the world’s true righteous: the Red Army soldiers who ended the Holocaust and saved the Jewish world.”