The erosion of Russian diplomacy abroad gained a new chapter on Tuesday (3), the 69th day of the war in Eastern Europe, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Israel of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, escalating the tension that began as soon as the diplomat said that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood.
The speeches of the long-lived minister are in line with one of the false allegations made by Vladimir Putin as an argument for initiating the invasion of neighboring territory: that it was necessary to “denazify” the Ukrainian state. The country, in fact, coexists with Nazi cells – such as the Azov Battalion, partly incorporated into the Armed Forces –, but experts say that Putin’s speech does not hold up in reality.
Lavrov’s accusation came after his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, condemned the speeches about Jews and accused the top Russian diplomat of making political use of the Holocaust. He asked Lavrov to apologize for the remarks, which he characterized as a display of racism.
The episode, in addition to the exchange of diplomatic barbs, risks changing the position of Israel, until now a neutral agent in the conflict. Tel Aviv has been sending humanitarian aid to Kiev, but has hesitated to send weapons, as other countries have done. It also paid little consistent criticism of Moscow and did not impose economic sanctions.
In raising his tone, Lavrov said Lapid made “anti-historical” remarks about the Holocaust that “would make clear the course of the current Israeli government in supporting the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.” “Unfortunately, history knows tragic examples of Jewish cooperation with the Nazis,” the foreign minister continued.
The diplomacy of the Putin government also refuted the argument – also considered marginal by experts – that the fact that Volodmyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, is Jewish would eliminate the chances of the country being ruled by Nazis. “Anti-Semitism in everyday life and politics has not stopped — on the contrary, it has been fueled,” he said.
Up-to-date figures from the United Nations human rights office show that at least 3,193 civilians have died since the start of the war, with 227 of the victims being children. Another 3,353 civilians were reportedly injured. The figures, however, are admittedly underreported. The number of refugees from the conflict approaches 5.6 million – Ukraine has about 45 million inhabitants.
Tuesday was also marked by a partly successful attempt to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, a symbol city of the war, which acts as a sort of bastion for the remaining Ukrainian forces in the besieged Russian site. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which mediated the opening of the humanitarian corridor, more than 100 people, including dozens of wounded, left the plant and went to ZaporÃjia, in the central region.
“I was in Azovstal for two and a half months, and they [os russos] attacked us from all sides,” Olga Savina told The New York Times as she disembarked from a humanitarian convoy bus. She said the sunlight had burned her eyes after so many days living underground.
Still, the Russian Defense Ministry, according to the RIA news agency, said that, alongside troops from the self-proclaimed breakaway republic of Donetsk, in the Donbass region, it again attacked Azovstal by land and air. The folder alleges that Ukrainian forces took advantage of the ceasefire to regain positions in the territory, which would justify the attacks.
Russia has also returned to attack Lviv, a city in western Ukraine close to the border with Poland, the main destination for refugees, according to Mayor Andrii Sadovii wrote on a social network. The energy infrastructure would have been hit, damaging supplies in part of the region, and one person would have been injured.
The destruction of a bridge in Odessa, in the south of the country, added to the attacks on an airport and a warehouse of weapons supplied by the West, also signal the intensification of Russian action in the Black Sea.
In Kherson, the first major city taken by the Russians at the start of the war, there are indications that Moscow now controls the internet and the media. Ukraine and its allies accuse Russia of trying to forge referendums to somehow legitimize the occupation.
Putin spoke by phone with Frenchman Emmanuel Macron – who, in turn, had spoken with Zelensky over the weekend. The Russian urged the West to stop supplying Ukraine with weapons. Earlier, Putin signed a decree imposing new retaliatory sanctions against individuals and companies deemed hostile to Moscow.
Pope Francis, in an interview with an Italian newspaper, said he had been waiting for more than two months for a formal response from Russia about his possible visit to the Russian president. “I am afraid that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting,” said the pontiff, who also advised Orthodox Church leader Cyril Patriarch not to be “Putin’s altar boy.”
In Kiev, the session of the Ukrainian Parliament featured the broadcast of a speech by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The first Western leader to speak directly to Ukraine’s lawmakers announced a new military aid package and promised the country will win the war.
