“A manifestation of deep-rooted anti-Semitism among Russian elites”: Ukraine’s foreign ministry responds to Putin’s anti-Semitic remarks about Zelensky

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine commented on the anti-Semitic statement of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The head of the Kremlin linked the Jewish origin of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, with the heroization of Nazism.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Oleh Nikolenko, reported this.

"Putin's chronic fixation on the ethnic origin of the Ukrainian president is another manifestation of deep-rooted anti-Semitism among Russian elites," Nikolenko said.

The diplomatic agency called on the world to strongly condemn the Russian president's anti-Semitic statements. Nikolenko noted that "there should be no place for hatred based on ethnicity in the modern world."

In an interview with a Russian TV channel, Putin said that the West allegedly put an "ethnic Jew" at the head of Ukraine to cover up the anti-human nature of Ukrainians.

"It makes the situation extremely disgusting that an ethnic Jew covers up the heroization of Nazism and those who led the Holocaust in Ukraine at one time," he said.

Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President's Office, wrote in his microblog on Twitter that this is another cynical attempt by Putin to use the topic of the Holocaust.

"A person who knowingly gives an order to launch a missile attack on a foreign country, mass murder, rape, kidnap children, destroy cities and villages, offers a new excuse for his internal inadequacy," wrote Podoliak.