Israeli prime minister says Putin apologized to him after Russia's top diplomat accused Israel of being pro-Nazi over Ukraine support

• Israel's prime minister said Putin apologized for Russia's pro-Nazi accusations.
• Russia has repeatedly tried to use Nazism as a justification for its devastating war in Ukraine.

Israel's prime minister said Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to him after Moscow's top diplomat previously accused Israel of being pro-Nazi over its support of Ukraine.

"The Prime Minister accepted President Putin's apology for [Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov's remarks and thanked him for clarifying his attitude towards the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust," Naftali Bennett's office said in a Thursday statement after a phone call with Putin.

Lavrov falsely suggested last weekend that Adolf Hitler was Jewish, the latest attempt from Moscow to try to justify war in Ukraine as a campaign against neo-Nazis. Russia also accused Israel of being pro-Nazi by showing support for Kyiv.

Israel's government called Lavrov's remarks "unforgivable" and "the lowest form of racism."

"Such lies are intended to accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrific crimes in history that were committed against them," Bennett said in a statement in response to Lavrov, adding, "The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately."

The Kremlin made mention of an apology in its readout of Thursday's call between Putin and Bennett.

But Bennett's office said that along with the apology, Putin also promised to allow an evacuation from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where a small band of Ukrainian resistance and civilians have been holed up for weeks.

Israel's evacuation request — which would involve a United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) humanitarian corridor — comes a day after Bennett spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Hundreds of civilians have already been evacuated from bombarded Mariupol to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in recent days through a joint UN and ICRC operation.

Israel has taken a relatively neutral stance throughout Russia's war against Ukraine — providing humanitarian assistance and denouncing Russia over atrocities like the Bucha killings, though stopping short of unveiling any sanctions or providing lethal military aid to Ukrainian forces.

The Israeli government voted to condemn Russia's invasion in the UN, and has offered Ukraine non-lethal military aid. But lawmakers in Washington, among others, have pressured Israel to do more to help Ukraine bolster its security — particularly given the billions in military aid the US gives Israel per year.

The US and its Western allies have slapped unprecedented sanctions on Russia over the war, while sending billions in military aid to Ukraine, including heavy weapons.

The Israeli government's position on the Ukraine war is heavily influenced by the Russian military's presence in Syria and security concerns over Iran. Israel coordinates with Russia to target Iranian activities in Syria, and has sought to maintain amicable relations with Moscow as a result.

Israel also has strong political and cultural ties to both Russia and Ukraine — roughly 15% of its population is Russian-speaking and many came from the former Soviet Union (including Ukraine). Taken together, these factors have placed Israel in an awkward position as its Western allies band together against Russia.

But Lavrov's comments risked alienating Israel and pushing it to fully embrace Washington's approach to punishing Russia over the war, which could help explain why Putin apparently made an atypical effort to apologize to a fellow world leader.