On Tuesday, Russia’s foreign ministry accused Israel of backing neo-Nazis in Ukraine, intensifying a spat that began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler was Jewish.
Israel said on Monday that Lavrov’s remark was a ‘unforgivable’ lie that attempted to minimise the atrocities of the Holocaust, which saw Nazi Germany slaughter 6 million European Jews and other minorities.
Lavrov was chastised by leaders from numerous Western countries when he was questioned how Russia could be ‘denazifying’ Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is a Jew. Zelenskiy, whose country is a parliamentary democracy, accused Russia of forgetting World War Two lessons.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s views, according to the Russian foreign ministry, are ‘anti-historical’ and ‘explain to a significant extent why the current Israeli administration supports the neo-Nazi dictatorship in Kyiv.’
Moscow echoed Lavrov’s statement that Zelenskiy’s Jewish ancestry does not prevent neo-Nazi rule in Ukraine.
‘Antisemitism in ordinary life and politics (in Ukraine) is not prevented, but rather encouraged,’ it stated in a statement.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Israel reaffirmed its support for the country. However, in order to avoid jeopardising relations with Russia, a key player in neighbouring Syria, it avoided harsh criticism of Moscow at first and has not imposed formal sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
However, relations have deteriorated, with Lapid accusing Russia of war crimes in Ukraine last month.
‘I just have one question after the Kremlin alleged that Israel supports Nazism. Is there any non-Nazi country in the world, according to Russia? Except for Syria, Belarus, and Eritrea, of course,’ Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Tuesday, referring to countries that have backed Moscow’s ‘special operation’ in Ukraine.
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