Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday described his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, as a “disgrace to the Jewish people,” and once again accused Ukraine of being in the hands of neo-Nazis to justify its armed operation there.
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“I have many Jewish friends since childhood. They say Zelensky is not Jewish, but he is a disgrace to the Jewish people. He said during an economic forum in St. Live on Russian TV.
Putin again accused the Ukrainian president of “covering up these bastards as neo-Nazis” and treating Nazi collaborators during World War II as heroes.
“Why aren’t we being listened to?” he asked. “We have to fight that,” he said.
“We have every right to consider the goal of denazification of Ukraine one of the main goals,” he added.
Mr. Putin justified his attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022 by claiming a duty to “denigrate” his neighbor, whom he accuses of committing “genocide” of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine.
The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine responded to these statements, saying that he was proud of Volodymyr Zelensky.
“And I’m not the only one. I think the whole world is proud of him,” the Ukrainian news agency Jonah quoted Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman as saying.
“He did not run away and is doing everything he can to help the Ukrainian people,” he added.
He also said that there were no neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine as the Kremlin claimed.
“There are honest people in Ukraine who are defending their homeland,” the agency quoted him as saying.
In a statement on Twitter, the American Jewish Committee, for its part, saw “Putin’s attempt to discredit President Zelensky’s Jewish origin” as a “desperate and regrettable” reaction.
