'Absurd, delusional and dangerous': Israel slams Russian FM's comments on Nazism and Ukraine
Israel blasted the Russian foreign minister on Monday over his "unforgivable" comments about Nazism, Hitler and the war in Ukraine.
Speaking on an Italian news channel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Nazis could still have power in Ukraine, even if the country's president was Jewish.
"When they say ‘how can Nazification exist if we’re Jewish'," said Lavrov. "In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything.
"For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish," he added.
Russia has repeatedly claimed it invaded Ukraine to "de-nazify" the country and remove fascist elements from its government, in a bid to legitimise the war to its citizens.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish and his relatives were killed in the Holocaust.
In a steep decline in relations between the two countries, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov's statement “unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error.
“The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust,” he said. “The lowest level of racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for antisemitism.”
Russia's top diplomat was later summoned by Lapid for "clarifications".
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Israel has sought to strike a neutral position between the two sides, wishing to remain in Russia's good books for its security needs in the Middle East.
Israel has not provided Kyiv with any offensive weaponry, although it has given Ukraine protective equipment.
The chairman of Israel’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem called the Russian foreign minister's comments “absurd, delusional, dangerous and deserving of condemnation.”
“Lavrov is propagating the
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