Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday that the fact that Ukriane President Volodymyr Zelensky was Jewish, does not negate the Nazi elements in his country.
In a statement quoted on Reuters, Lavrov said that he believed Hitler also had Jewish blood.
The Russian Foreign Minister was quoted by Italian media saying that some of the worst anti-Semites were Jews.
"Lavrov's words are unfounded, strange and dangerous and must be condemned," the chairman of the Yad Vashem Museum, Danny Dayan said in response.
Lavrov claimed Zelensky was inconsistent in his positions and that the Ukrainians were sabotaging ceasefire negotiations adding that Zelensky could bring about peace if he stopped giving criminal instructions to his Nazi forces.
Putin cited de Nazifying Ukraine as one of the aims of his invasion of that country in February, claiming part of the Ukrainian government was held by Neo Nazi elements.
In the course of the war, Ukraine's Azov Battalion, still holdup in Mariupol, came into international public awareness.
They had been accused of holding Neo Nazi positions over the years but deny the allegations. A commander in the Battalion even claimed last month, that Jewish fighters who had served in the IDF, were part of their fighting forces, as were Muslims.
Experts said the nationalist militia did contain pro-Nazi elements but have since joined with others and has rid itself of many of the extremists.
The Azov Battalion was established soon after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014, during the fighting against the pro-Russian seperatists in the Donbas region.
It was later embedded in the Ukrainian National Guards and is now under the command of the Interior Ministry in Kyiv.