In an interview with the Italian news channel Zona Bianca, Lavrov was asked how Russian President Vladimir Putin could claim that he was trying to “de-excommunicate” Ukraine when Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s democratically elected president, was a Jew. “Well, if Zelensky is a Jew. The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. “I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” Lavrov said, adding that “some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews.” Persistent conspiracy theories that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had a Jewish background that may have incited his anti-Semitism and the murder of six million Jews have repeatedly been debunked by historians. Announcing the invasion, Putin said the “special military operation” would seek to “desensitize” his sovereign neighbor. Russian media have repeatedly tried to portray Ukraine as aligned with Nazism, with no evidence to support such allegations. Get the Times of Israel Daily E-mail and never miss our top stories By registering, you agree to the terms The head of the Israeli Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, Dani Dayan, condemned Lavrov’s statements made the same week that Israel commemorated the Holocaust, calling his words “false, delusional and dangerous and worthy of condemnation.” Head of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan. (Alex Kolomoisky / Yad Vashem) Yad Vashem and other groups representing the survivors had previously condemned Russia’s claim that Ukraine should be “revived” as “it is not based on facts, it distorts and demeans the Holocaust and we deplore it.” In the interview, Lavrov also accused the United States of torpedoing peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, and accused the Western media of distorting coverage of the war and painting “distorted views of me.” However, he said Zelensky still had the power to end the war if he “stopped giving criminal orders to his Nazi forces”. Lavrov’s comments came after Zelensky’s meeting with US Parliament Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Kyiv, and described the meeting as a strong message of support at a difficult time. In a televised speech Sunday afternoon, Zelensky said his meeting with Pelosi included discussions on defense supplies to Ukraine, financial support and sanctions against Russia. In this picture released by the Presidential Press Office of Ukraine on May 1, 2022, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, right, awards the Order of Princess Olga, third class, to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in Kyiv, Ukraine , on April 30th. 2022 (Press Office of the Ukrainian Presidential Press via AP) Pelosi and half a dozen U.S. lawmakers met with Zelensky and his top aides for about three hours late Saturday to express US solidarity with the besieged nation and receive a first-hand appreciation as he works to steer a huge new in Ukraine through Congress. Zelensky said that the Ukrainians “are grateful to all the partners who send such important and strong messages of support by visiting our capital at such a difficult time.” In addition, Zelensky estimated that more than 350,000 people had been evacuated from the war zones thanks to the humanitarian corridors predetermined by Moscow since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February. Many civilians were evacuated Sunday from a steel plant in the bombed-out city of Mariupol. As many as 100,000 people are believed to be still in the besieged Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians who were chased by about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters under the Soviet-era steel plant – the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. However, the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who were still in the factory was not immediately clear. A Russian soldier stands guard as a group of international journalists look at a painting of a Ukrainian holding a Soviet-era red flag on the territory of the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, April 30, 2022. This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. (AP Photo) Mariupol has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. A maternity hospital was hit by a deadly Russian airstrike in the first weeks of the war and about 300 people were reported killed in a bombing of a theater where civilians were taking refuge. Zelensky also accused Moscow of waging a “war of extermination”, saying Russian bombings had hit food, grain and fertilizer depots and residential neighborhoods in Kharkov, Donbass and other areas. “What could be Russia’s strategic success in this war?” Honestly, I do not know. “The ruined lives of people and the burnt or stolen property will not give anything to Russia.” A man’s body is in an apartment as Russian bombing continues in a village recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces near Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, April 30, 2022. (AP Photo / Felipe Dana) Russian forces have launched a major military operation to occupy key parts of southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to occupy the capital, Kyiv. Mariupol, a port city in the Sea of ​​Azov, is a key target due to its strategic location near the Crimean peninsula, which Russia occupied from Ukraine in 2014. We tell a critical story Israel is now a much more important player on the world stage than its size suggests. 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