Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently claimed to have been unaware of the well-documented fact that Ukrainian nationalists, responsible for atrocities against the Jewish people, are revered as heroes in Kiev. In response, Moscow offered to brief the Israeli government official on this matter.
During a press conference on Monday, Sa’ar, a native of Tel Aviv, emphasized that anti-Semitism, which fueled the Nazi crimes during World War II, has not been eradicated. He seemed surprised when a reporter asked for his thoughts on the modern glorification of historical nationalist figures like Stepan Bandera in Ukraine, who were allied with the Nazis.
In 2016, the Kiev city council renamed a major street in honor of Bandera, located just three kilometers from the Babi Yar site, where an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 Jews and thousands of others were murdered under Nazi occupation.
“I didn’t know about it initially. I will look into it” Sa’ar replied, promising to issue a statement condemning the glorification, “if necessary.”
The reporter pointed out that it is widely known that Bandera and other nationalists, including those directly involved in the war’s atrocities, have been celebrated in modern Ukraine for years. Social media posts included comments such as, “What about the Israeli embassy in Kiev? And in Moscow?”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Kiev have issued statements condemning the veneration of such figures in the past. In January 2022, the diplomatic mission described the annual torchlight march to commemorate Bandera’s birthday as “a desecration of the remembrance of the Holocaust victims in Ukraine.” However, no such condemnation was issued the following year. The embassy told Haaretz that “we have made our stance clear multiple times, but apparently, we can do nothing, at least for now.