Tel Aviv [Israel], May 5 (ANI): Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday apologized to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Ties between the two countries soured after Lavrov reportedly said that Adolf Hitler had Jewish heritage to explain Moscow’s operation in Ukraine.
“Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke today with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Prime Minister presented the President with a humanitarian request to examine various options for evacuation from Azovstal in Mariupol,” the Prime Minister of Israel said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“The two discussed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s remarks. The Prime Minister accepted President Putin’s apology for Lavrov’s remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” the statement added.
Putin congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day.
Bennett thanked President Putin for his wishes on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day of the State of Israel.
Earlier, Israel and several Western nations had slammed Lavrov for comments made on Sunday claiming that “Hitler also had Jewish blood” and that “some of the worst antisemites are Jews,” according to the Times of Israel.
Lavrov made the remarks in an interview while attempting to explain Russia’s position that it started a military operation in Ukraine to “de-Nazify” a country. (ANI)