The department recalled that on April 27, an Israeli diplomat turned to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, with a proposal, as part of “derussification”, to rename a number of Kyiv streets in honor of the Ukrainian “righteous among the world”, who saved Jews during the Great Patriotic War.
“The position of the official representative of the State of Israel is perplexing, who in his statement pretends that he only means to perpetuate the memory of “people who saved Jews during the Holocaust” ... And not a word about how this is supposed to be done,” - said in a statement the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
She noted that during the Second World War, mass Jewish pogroms and executions in Ukraine were carried out with the assistance of local nationalists and collaborators from the OUN-UPA * and militants of the SS division "Galicia", who are today praised in Kyiv.
“We cannot allow the perpetrators of the Holocaust to be praised in any way,” Zakharova added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously called Ukrainians who wear military uniforms with stripes of the SS division "Galicia" scum.
* "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) is a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).