Zelenskyy Calls Israel’s Bennett To Discuss Russian FM’s ‘Scandalous,’ ‘Unacceptable Hitler Statement

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to discuss the “scandalous and completely unacceptable remarks” made by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Zelenskyy in a video released early Thursday morning said the comment outraged the entire world. Lavrov said in a television interview on Sunday that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins and that Jews are the worst antisemites. He was responding to the question of how Ukraine, whose president is Jewish, could be a hotbed of neo-Nazism, which Russia claims is the reason for its invasion. Zelenskyy also tweeted shortly after midnight that he “held fruitful negotiations with the Prime Minister of Israel @naftalibennett. Congratulated him and the people of Israel on Independence Day! Have informed him about countering the aggressor and about the critical situation in Mariupol.” Bennett had been working to mediate between Russia and Ukraine and had refrained from criticizing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. But Bennett responded to Lavrov’s remarks, saying, “His words are untrue and their intentions are wrong. Using the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately.”