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'Jewish blood': Russia's Lavrov likens Zelenskyy to Hitler, Israel hits back
Speaking to an Italian channel in an interview released on Sunday, Lavrov said that Zelenskyy "puts forward an argument of what kind of Nazism can they have if he himself is Jewish", reported news agency AFP.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday compared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with German dictator Adolf Hitler amid the ongoing war, which in turn invited criticism from Israel – a nation that so far had sought to keep a delicate balance between the two warring sides.
Speaking to an Italian channel in an interview released on Sunday, Lavrov said that Zelenskyy "puts forward an argument of what kind of Nazism can they have if he himself is Jewish", reported news agency AFP.
An AFP report, citing a transcript posted on the Russian foreign ministry website, quoted Lavrov as saying, “I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood.” Calling it “grave remarks”, Israel said it was "an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error".
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"Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust," Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid said. "The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism." Israel's foreign ministry "has summoned the Russian Ambassador to Israel for a clarification meeting", a statement by the foreign ministry read.
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Moscow previously said it wanted to "de-militarise" and "de-Nazify" Ukraine.
Ukraine's response
In a tweet, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Lavrov's comments illustrated "deeply-rooted antisemitism of the Russian elites". "His heinous remarks are offensive to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine, Israel, and the Jewish people," he added.
"More broadly, they demonstrate that today's Russia is full of hatred towards other nations."
Towards the end of March, in a speech to the Israeli parliament, Zelenskyy had called on Israel to "make a choice" by supporting Ukraine against Russia and asked the Jewish state to provide it with weapons.
(With inputs from AFP)
