Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Ukrainian leaders “idiots and neo-fascists” while praising Russia’s defense industry, as Russia’s foreign minister was called on to respond to Moscow’s stance on the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to fire, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine rages on.

“They have gone completely mad, or to put it more simply, they have become completely brazen,” Putin appears to say of the Ukrainian leadership in a video released today, with the Russian president holding a glass of champagne during a meeting in the Kremlin with Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

Putin claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deliberately applauded a former Nazi, a reference to an incident that occurred last September during the Ukrainian president’s visit to Canada. Then, in the presence of Zelenskiy, the speaker of the Canadian House of Commons called on MPs to applaud 98-year-old Ukrainian veteran Yaroslav Hunka. But according to Jewish organizations, Hunka fought with the 14th Waffen-SS Volunteer Division. The incident caused a scandal, leading to the resignation of the speaker of the Parliament.

Putin saw the incident as proof of the neo-fascist attitude of the current leadership in Kiev.

In today’s meeting with the Russian military, the Russian president praised the Russian defense industry. “It produces many times more” compared to when the war (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) started, Putin said.

At the same time, in an interview given to the Al Jazeera news network, the Russian Foreign Minister was asked if Moscow’s attitude is hypocritical by criticizing and defending the Palestinians, in the midst of the Israel/Hamas war, while at the same time Russia is waging its own war in Ukraine. Lavrov responded that neither he nor Russia are hypocrites.

Russia on Friday voted in favor of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” on humanitarian grounds in the Gaza Strip, but the US vetoed the resolution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “dissatisfaction” to Putin today in a telephone conversation between the two leaders for this attitude of Russia. In that communication, Netanyahu criticized “the dangerous cooperation between Russia and Iran,” a key supporter of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Moscow on Thursday.

Since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, Putin has been critical of Israel, denouncing the humanitarian “catastrophe” and calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.

In his interview, the Russian Foreign Minister emphasized that the West is trying to exhaust Russia in Ukraine by supplying weapons and that if peace talks are to take place then the president of Ukraine should cancel a presidential decree of his own.

“It’s up to the Ukrainians to recognize how deep they are in the hole that the Americans put them in,” Lavrov said when asked if the war in Ukraine was at an impasse.

Asked what the chances of diplomacy bringing about a ceasefire or peace in Ukraine were, he said: “You should contact Zelensky because a year and a half ago he signed a decree banning all negotiations with Putin.”

Lavrov stressed that a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia was almost reached in Istanbul in March and April 2022 based on the idea of ​​Ukrainian neutrality. “This agreement was thwarted – it was canceled because the Americans and the British decided that if Putin is ready to sign it, then let them exhaust him more (…),” Lavrov said.

Regarding the war between Israel and Hamas, the head of Russian diplomacy emphasized that Moscow is requesting an international monitoring mission to go to the Gaza Strip to assess the humanitarian situation.

“We strongly condemned the terrorist attack against Israel on October 7,” Lavrov stressed. “At the same time, we do not believe it is acceptable to use this event to collectively punish millions of Palestinians with indiscriminate bombing.”