Russian Foreign Ministry responds to remarks by Israeli foreign minister
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine from being run by neo-Nazis
Responding to comments by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, the ministry pointed out that Lapid's opinion that Zelenskyy cannot be a Nazi because of his Jewish origins has proven to be wrong, arguing that history “is unfortunately familiar with tragic examples of Jewish-Nazi collaboration.”
In particular, the ministry cited examples of the collaboration of many Jewish people with Nazi Germany.
The ministry recalled that “in Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe, the Germans appointed Jewish industrialists as heads of ghettos and Jewish councils (“Judenrats”), and some of them were remembered for absolutely monstrous deeds.”
The ministry quoted Jewish historian Hubert Dreyfus, who admitted Jewish complicity in the Holocaust and called it a "marginal phenomenon" but not a taboo, "a subject of research."
The ministry then stressed that unlike the Jewish people at the time of World War II, Zelenskyy is not forced to side with Nazis for fear of his life but chooses to do so voluntarily.
The ministry expressed surprise that Lapid does not notice torchlight processions in Ukraine where an old chant, "Death to the Yids, (Jews)," is one of the most used.
Other nations are under attack in Ukraine as well, with one of the most vulnerable the Gypsies, the ministry said, recalling how neo-Nazis recently captured several gypsy women, painted their faces brilliant green and wrote "thief" on their foreheads.
The ministry regretted that such cases are either not noticed in Ukraine at all or considered "petty hooliganism."
Earlier, Lapid demanded an apology from Moscow for remarks by his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, who said that Hitler had Jewish roots as well, which did not prevent him from creating a Nazi state.
The Russian ambassador to Israel was summoned to the Israeli Foreign Ministry over the incident and handed a note of protest.
Zelenskyy earlier thanked the Nazi Azov battalion for their contribution to the fight against "Russian aggressors" and said he does not see any radicalism in it although its members use Nazi symbols like swastikas, attributes of major Nazi paramilitary organization the SS, and their arguments and rhetoric.
In an interview with the US-based Fox News television channel, Zelenskyy said Azov "is what it is." The segment was cut from the show but later appeared on the internet.
Zelesnkyy has also shut down over a dozen TV channels in Ukraine and called the residents of Donbas "specimens, not people."
Russia insists that rampant Nazism was one of the reasons for the beginning of what Moscow calls its "special military operation."
At least 3,193 civilians have been killed and 3,353 others injured in Ukraine since the war with Russia began on Feb. 24, according to UN estimates. The true toll is feared to be much higher.
More than 5.5 million people have fled to other countries, with some 7.7 million people internally displaced, data from the UN refugee agency shows.
