Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who is of Jewish descent – a “pure Nazi” and “traitor to the Jewish people.”
Lavrov made the comment during an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda outlet, which was published by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.
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“Zelensky has turned 180 degrees from a man who came to power on slogans of peace, on slogans of ‘leave us alone from the Russian language, it is our common language, our common culture’ (all this is on the Internet) and in six months has turned into a pure Nazi and, as Russian President [Vladimir] Putin correctly said, into a traitor to the Jewish people,” Lavrov said.
Zelensky ran on a moderate platform during the 2019 elections when he won against former President Petro Poroshenko. Following his victory, Zelensky said he would “reboot” peace talks with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, according to a BBC report at the time.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Moscow has been attempting to falsely brand Ukraine a “neo-Nazi” state to justify its invasion of Ukraine, whose war goals included the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Kyiv – a point that Putin reitereated in December 2023.
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In January 2020, Zelensky told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that three of his grandfather’s brothers were victims of the Holocaust who were executed by German occupiers, according to an official press release at the time.
Anton Samborskyi, the 32-year-old adopted son of Ukraine’s chief rabbi, died fighting for Ukraine against Moscow’s invasion.
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