Russia says Israel supports Ukraine ‘neo-Nazis’ as row escalates

Russian foreign ministry says Israel supports ‘neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv’, escalating a diplomatic dispute.
Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Israel of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, escalating a row that began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on Monday that Lavrov’s comment was ‘It’s our heritage’: Defending Ukraine’s modernist architecture end of listLeaders from several Western nations denounced Lavrov, who had been asked how Russia could be pursuing its stated goal of “de-nazifying” Ukraine when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself is a Jew. Zelenskyy, whose country is a parliamentary democracy, accused Russia of having forgotten the lessons of World War II.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Lapid’s comments were “anti-historical” and “explain to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv”. Moscow reiterated Lavrov’s point that Zelenskyy’s Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine from being run by neo-Nazis. “Antisemitism in everyday life and in politics is not stopped and is on the contrary nurtured [in Ukraine],” it said in a statement. Israel has expressed support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February. But wary of damaging relations with Russia, a power broker in neighbouring Syria, it initially avoided direct criticism of Moscow and has not enforced formal sanctions on Russian oligarchs. Source: aljazera.com