Russia accuses Israel of backing ‘neo-Nazis’ in Kyiv as diplomatic row grows

Analysts said Sergei Lavrov’s inflammatory remarks were indicative of the ‘radicalisation’ of much of the Russian government. Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters

Russia has accused Israel of supporting the “neo-Nazi regime” in Kyiv as it escalates a diplomatic row with one of the few close US allies that decided not to join in sanctions against the Kremlin or send lethal military aid to Ukraine.

The dispute over remarks by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who said in an interview that Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood” and that the “most rabid antisemites tend to be Jews”, has threatened to unsettle Israel’s careful position over Russia’s war in Ukraine.