A spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said Israeli mercenaries were fighting alongside the far-right Azov Regiment in Ukraine, further fueling tensions with Israel after Russia suggested Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood.”
“Israeli mercenaries are practically shoulder to shoulder with Azov militants in Ukraine,” Maria Zakharova told pro-Kremlin Sputnik radio in an interview.
They have been fighting alongside the Ukrainian army against Russian troops, which on February 24 launched a military campaign in Ukraine to protect Russia’s national security.
By suggesting that Israelis are fighting alongside Azov – viewed by Russia as fascists and Nazis, Moscow is escalating political confrontation that started after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday that Hitler had “Jewish blood.”
His remarks sparked outrage in ‘Israel’, which called the statement “unforgivable and outrageous” and a “terrible historical error.”
Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday accused ‘Israel’ of backing “the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of Jewish descent.
Source: Websites
