The European Jewish Congress expressed its shock and dismay at comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who compared Western governments' support for Ukraine to Hitler's "Final Solution."

This is stated in the EJC's response to Lavrov's statement that the United States formed a coalition of European states to resolve the "Russian question" in the same way that Hitler organized the "final solution for European Jews."

"We are shocked and appalled by this shameful comparison drawn by Minister Lavrov between the actions of a coalition of democratic countries and Hitler’s persecution and murder of six million Jews in the Shoah," said President Ariel Muzicant.

He called such statements a distortion of the Holocaust at the most basic level. "We call on Mr. Lavrov to unequivocably apologise and withdraw these comments. This is not the first time the minister has used Holocaust equivalence and Hitler references," he added.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko noted on his Facebook page that Lavrov defames the memory of millions of victims of the Holocaust.

"The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry compared the Russians waging a war of conquest with the millions of Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. It turns out that it is not Russian rockets that are shooting at residential buildings in Ukraine, but the West has formed a coalition to resolve the "Russian question," Nikolenko said.

In this regard, the speaker stressed: "We strongly condemn the shameful statement of Sergei Lavrov, which defames the memory of millions of victims of the Holocaust."

Nikolenko added that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had already drawn attention to the deep-rooted anti-Semitism of Russian elites. "Modern Russia is full of hatred for other nations," the speaker said.

He also welcomed the quick reaction of the European Jewish Congress. "We call on the Israeli authorities and Jewish organizations around the world to respond to Lavrov's latest statement," Nikolenko added.