Alwaght- Russian foreign ministry accused the Israeli regime for supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine amid rising tensions between Tel Aviv and Moscow over the raging war in the former Soviet republic.
Russia and Israel have been engaged in a row since Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Italian television on Sunday that Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins, adding that Jews may be the worst anti-Semites.
He made the statement when asked why Russia had said its special military operation in Ukraine aimed to "denazify" the country if its own president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was a Jew.
Lavrov’s remarks drew condemnation from Israel, with Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid calling the statement an “unforgivable” error.
“The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust,” Lapid said on Monday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian foreign ministry said Lapid's comments were "anti-historical" and "explaining to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev".
The ministry reiterated Lavrov's point that Zelenskiy's Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine from being run by neo-Nazis.
Israel has expressed solidarity with Ukraine but has refrained from enforcing formal sanctions on Russia over its military operation in the neighboring country, unlike its western allies, in order to avoid strains in relations with Moscow.
However, relations between the two sides have already developed strains, with Lapid last month accusing Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
Russia has accused Israel of using the military operation in the former Soviet republic to “distract” the world from the regime’s ongoing aggression against Palestinians in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
