Putin slammed for claiming Zelensky covered up neo-Nazi genocide

The Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ukrainian embassy in Israel criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for claiming without any evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, was installed in his position to cover up the glorification of Nazism.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that the Russian President "linked the Jewish origin of the Ukrainian president with the glorification of Nazism. Putin's chronic fixation on the ethnic origin of the Ukrainian president is another expression of the deep-rooted antisemitism of the Russian elites."

The ministry called on everyone to "strongly condemn Putin's antisemitic statements. In today's world, there should be no place for hatred based on ethnicity."

The Ukrainian embassy in Israel stated that "the Israeli government needs to understand that Putin, in his harsh words against President Zelensky, only proves once again why Israel must support Ukraine, President Zelensky, and the Ukrainian people in their difficult time."

Where did Putin originally make these statements about Zelensky?

Putin had initially made these claims about the Ukrainian president in a television interview on Tuesday. 

The Russian President recently said in June, also without evidence, that some Jews considered Zelensky a disgrace to the Jewish faith.

“I have many Jewish friends. They say Zelensky is not a Jew, he is a disgrace to the Jewish people,” Putin said at an economic forum in St. Petersburg.

Reuters contributed to this report.