WHAT?

Putin Says His Jewish Friends Think Zelensky ‘Isn’t a Jew’

The Russian leader made the remark when asked why he calls the Ukrainian president a Nazi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday made the wild claim that he has lots of Jewish friends who don’t consider Volodymyr Zelensky to be a Jew. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin was asked about why he has referred to the Ukrainian president, who is Jewish, as a Nazi. “I have many Jewish friends,” Putin said, according to Reuters. “They say Zelensky is not a Jew, he is a disgrace to the Jewish people.” The Russian leader has used the excuse of wanting to rid Ukraine’s leadership of Nazism to justify his invasion of Ukraine. Zelensky, for his part, has said he intends to defeat Russia “just as Nazism was defeated” during the Second World War.