[ad_1]
(JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that different Jews assume Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky isn’t Jewish, regardless of his having “Jewish blood.”
“I’ve loads of Jewish buddies,” Putin stated on Friday on the St. Petersburg Worldwide Financial Discussion board. “They are saying that Zelensky isn’t Jewish, that he’s a shame to the Jewish folks.”
In line with the Instances of Israel, which quoted the TASS Russian Information Company, Putin additionally stated that Zelensky has “Jewish blood” however places “neo-Nazis, Hitler’s disciples” on “a pedestal as heroes of Ukraine.”
Putin has frequently stated that Russia’s struggle in Ukraine is partly an effort to stem the rise of rampant neo-Nazism there, a declare that students and analysts around the globe have roundly rejected as propaganda.
Zelensky doesn’t communicate typically about his Jewish heritage, however he has stated he had an “extraordinary Soviet Jewish upbringing,” including that his household was not non secular as a result of “faith didn’t exist within the Soviet state as such.” He misplaced household within the Holocaust and has invoked the genocide in each public rebukes of Russia and in appeals to Israel for help within the struggle effort.
“When Russians are telling about neo-Nazis they usually flip to me,” he stated shortly after the beginning of the struggle, “I simply reply that I’ve misplaced my complete household within the struggle as a result of all of them had been exterminated throughout World Struggle II.”
Natan Sharansky, the distinguished human rights activist who spent 9 years in Russian jail within the Nineteen Seventies and 80s, issued a press release in response to Putin’s feedback.
“Zelensky unites the Ukrainian folks towards barbaric aggression, and we Jews could be proud {that a} consultant of our folks performs a historic and vital position in uniting the entire world for the sake of defending our future,” he stated.
Final yr, Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “even Hitler had Jewish origins” and “the largest antisemites are Jewish themselves,” feedback that drew condemnation from Israeli politicians.
As many as 354,000 troopers have been killed or injured since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022.
[ad_2]
Source link
