‘Hitler also had Jewish blood’: Russian foreign minister causes fury with remarks about Zelensky and ‘de-Nazifying’ Ukraine
Russia’s foreign minister has caused fury after claiming Hitler “had Jewish blood”, in a bid to justify the Kremlin’s so-called ‘de-Nazification’ of Ukraine.
Moscow’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov was condemned by Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid, after making his comments to Italian media this week, while referring to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president’s top adviser said the comments were proof the Kremlin was “a successor to Nazi ideology”.
Asked how Russia could justify the assertion it is trying to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine when it has a Jewish president, Lavrov said: “So what if Zelensky is Jewish”
“The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” adding, “some of the worst antisemites are Jews.”
In a furious response, Lapid said Lavrov’s “remarks are both an unforgivable and outrageous statement as well as a terrible historical error.
“Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of antisemitism.”
Mykhaylo Podolyak, adviser to Zelenskyy, responded to the comments, which he branded antisemitic, and “the evidence of Russia being a successor to Nazi ideology.”
“By trying to rewrite history, Moscow is simply looking for arguments to justify the mass murders of Ukrainians