The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Reuven Asman, responded to the President of Russia, Volodymyr Putin, who called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyі "a shame of the Jewish people" in a UNIAN commentary.
"I can personally say that I am proud of President Zelenskyі, that he did not run away and is doing everything to help the Ukrainian people. And not only me. I think the whole world is proud of him," said Moshe Reuven Asman.
The chief rabbi of Ukraine also emphasized that there are no neo-Nazis in Ukraine.
"There are decent people in Ukraine who defend their homeland," said Moshe Reuven Asman.
Ukraine's ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk also reacted to Putin's statement. In a conversation with a journalist of The Jerusalem Post, he called the words of the Russian leader "a clear provocation in the style of the KGB and bad propaganda." The diplomat assumed that such statements were made in order to "sabotage relations between Israel and Ukraine" before Zelenskyi's wife's visit to the country.
"Putin's comments are anti-Semitic and directed against the Jewish people. I think that the Israeli people should be proud of the president of Ukraine, who is a Jew and courageously defends his country. When (Putin) attacks Zelenskyi, he attacks the Jewish people. We are on one side of the barricade, said Korniychuk.
We will remind you that during a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin said that he has had many Jewish friends since childhood, who allegedly claim that "Zelensky is not a Jew, but a shame of the Jewish people."
