President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed by the Israeli army as part of its offensive against Hamas, “catastrophic” and said it cannot be compared with that in Ukraine.
• Also read: Moscow is calling on the UN to organize an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Also read: UN General Assembly calls for “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza
“What is happening is a catastrophe,” Putin, whose country launched a major attack against Ukraine in February 2022, said during his major televised press conference.
“Look at the special military operation (in Ukraine) and look at what is happening in Gaza and see the difference.” “There is no such thing in Ukraine,” the Russian president assured.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, Russia regularly bombs Ukrainian cities, causing deaths and injuries.
Ukraine said Russia carried out a new massive drone strike against southern Ukraine overnight, after hitting Kiev with missiles the day before.
During a virtual speech to the G20 summit in late November, Putin had already reflected that every war is a “tragedy,” but accused the West of selective outrage and questioned it about the “extermination of civilians in Palestine.”
On October 7, hundreds of Hamas fighters entered southern Israel from the Gaza Strip and carried out a bloody attack on civilians on a scale and with violence not seen since Israel's founding in 1948.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war to “annihilate” Hamas and launched intensive bombings of the Gaza Strip before launching a ground offensive into the Palestinian enclave.