Europe bears ‘share of the blame’ for Israel’s attack on Iran – Russia

Western leaders pressured the UN nuclear watchdog to publish an accusatory report on Tehran ahead of Israeli airstrikes, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow, Russia, May 15, 2025. © Sergey Guneev/RIA Novosti

24 Jun, 2025 17:24 Russia Today

Europe bears ‘share of the blame’ for Israel’s attack on Iran – Russia

European leaders pressured the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to issue a negative assessment of Iran and “bear a share of the blame” for Israel’s attack on the Islamic Republic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Israel attacked Iran shortly after the UN nuclear watchdog declared Tehran to be in breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), despite Iran's claims its uranium enrichment program is peaceful. The US joined the Jewish state’s air campaign to strike Tehran’s nuclear sites shortly before Washington announced a ceasefire had been reached between Israel and Iran.

Speaking at the Primakov Forums meeting in Moscow on Tuesday, Lavrov accused European leaders of pressuring the IAEA's director, General Rafael Grossi, into publishing an accusatory report on Iran.

“The Europeans have taken a purely neocolonial position... They were actively preparing Grossi so that he would put the most ambiguously negative formulations into his report,” the top diplomat said.

The UK, France, Germany, and later, the US ran with the IAEA assessment and pushed a resolution through the IAEA Board of Governors that condemned Iran for allegedly violating the NPT, he added.

“A few days later, Israel launched its attacks,” Lavrov said.

The Europeans bear a share of the blame for this happening and for the fact that such attacks were carried out.

This highlights that the West “exerts very serious influence on international organizations, and has even privatized them to an extent,” Lavrov said, adding that most such bodies are no longer “guided by the requirement of impartiality.”

Weeks before the escalation, Reuters cited anonymous diplomats as saying that Western powers were pressuring the IAEA to declare Tehran in breach of its NPT obligations, at the height of US-Iran nuclear talks.

Tehran has since accused Grossi of taking sides and turning a blind eye to Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear energy facilities. Multiple IAEA resolutions state that any use of force against peaceful nuclear facilities is illegal under international law.

Moscow has condemned Israeli and US attacks against Iran as “illegitimate.” The recent ceasefire, announced by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, “can and should be welcomed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Moscow hopes that it “proves to be sustainable,” he added.

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Related news

NATO chief dodges question about why to fear a ‘Russian attack’

Mark Rutte only cited general concerns and requested more military spending when asked to explain the timeline for an alleged invasion

24 Jun, 2025 13:45 Russia Today

24 Jun, 2025 13:45 Russia Today

NATO chief dodges question about why to fear a ‘Russian attack’

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has failed to explain why the bloc believes Russia could attack within five years despite citing the claim during a press conference on Monday to legitimise his calls for increased military spending.

In recent months, a number of Western officials have repeatedly claimed that Russia may attack an Eastern European member state in the near future, using the rhetoric as a foundation for drastically raising defense spending. Moscow has vehemently denied harboring any hostile intent, and called such accusations “nonsense.”

While speaking at a pre-summit press conference in The Hague, Rutte was asked to disclose what NATO’s assessment of a Russian attack within five years was based on. The secretary general, however, avoided giving any specific intelligence or threat assessment, citing only general fears and urging an increase in the bloc-wide defense spending target to 5% of GDP.

Rutte said there was “great worry in many circles of NATO” and referred to “senior military leaders” and “intelligence community people” who have spoken about the possibility that “3, 5, 7 years from now, Russia will be able to successfully attack us, if we do not start investing more today.”

He emphasized that “huge extra defense spending over the next three to five years” was required to ensure NATO’s future readiness. According to Rutte, yearly increases would be needed to strengthen the bloc through new personnel and military equipment.

Russia has consistently rejected the idea that Moscow plans to invade NATO countries, with President Vladimir Putin calling the accusations “nonsense” and “shameless lies” designed to extract resources from the population and divert it towards military spending.

Speaking to military academy graduates on Monday, Putin stated that the West “came up with this horror story themselves and repeats it year after year,” using it to provoke a new arms race and justify what he called “global militarization.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also slammed NATO’s “unbridled militarization” and suggested that the bloc would need to create a “monster” to push through the proposed 5% GDP defense spending benchmark.

“Let’s call things by their proper names,” he said. “This is an alliance created for confrontation. This is an alliance that brings aggression and confrontation. This is not an instrument of peace and stability.”

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Trump shares fawning texts from NATO chief

Mark Rutte used block capitals and praised the US leader for his “extraordinary” action against Iran

24 Jun, 2025 23:46 Russia Today

US President Donald Trump (R) meets NATO chief, Mark Rutte, in Washington, DC, US, on March 13, 2025. © Global Look Press / CNP / Yuri Gripas

US President Donald Trump has posted screenshots of private text messages from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in which the former Dutch prime minister aped Trump's writing style and showered the American leader with praise for “decisive action in Iran.”

Trump published the screenshots, widely seen as deeply embarrassing for the NATO chief, on his Truth Social platform ahead of the military bloc's two-day NATO summit in The Hague, which started on Tuesday.

“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer,” Rutte wrote.

Rutte is backing Trump's controversial demands that NATO members more-than-double their military spending to 5% of GDP. He has previously called for cuts to social programs in the EU in order to spend more on a militarized economy and suggested wthat without them Western Europeans should learn Russian.

In his messages he boasted to Trump that “Europe is going to pay BIG,” and anticipated “another big success” at The Hague summit, saying that all NATO members had agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense.

“You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” he proclaimed.

A NATO spokesperson has reportedly confirmed to the BBC that the text is authentic.

Trump has long insisted that NATO members in Europe should significantly increase their military budgets, which many have pledged to do in recent years, citing the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

Spain has reportedly decided to opt out of the 5% spending target, after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez rejected the idea as “not only unreasonable but also counterproductive.” Madrid is currently below the existing 2% spending threshold, with only about 1.3% of its GDP allocated for the military.

Rutte, however, told journalists on Monday that NATO rules don’t allow such exemptions.

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Europeans once again rallying under Nazi flag against Russia – Lavrov

The top diplomat has hit out at Ukraine’s Western backers over their renewed push to inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow

27 May, 2025 14:48 Russia Today

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused some European leaders of reviving Nazi-era ambitions by supporting efforts to inflict a strategic defeat on Moscow.

Lavrov was responding on Tuesday to remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who the previous day declared there were “no more range limitations” for weapons sent to Ukraine by the West, including Germany. Merz has also vowed to turn the German military into Europe’s strongest conventional force.

“Europe has once again found itself a Nazi flag by committing to a completely misguided, disastrous venture of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia,” Lavrov stated.

“To hear from the current German leader that Germany will regain its position as the leading military power in Europe, just after we have celebrated the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Hitler’s Nazism, is quite symptomatic. History, apparently, taught these people nothing.”

Merz’s remarks on long-range weapons drew concern even within his own coalition. German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told reporters shortly after the chancellor’s statement that no agreements had been reached regarding the range of Ukrainian strikes using German weapons on Russian territory beyond what the previous government had in place. Lavrov said Merz’s confused and uninformed position “reflects the level of competence of modern European leaders.”

While Germany has not supplied long-range weapons to Ukraine, Merz’s comments have stirred speculation about a possible policy shift, particularly regarding the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles. Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz consistently rejected the idea, warning it would dangerously escalate the conflict.

Lavrov also addressed remarks by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who on Monday claimed France is not at war with Russia.

“He’s not telling the truth. France is fighting against Russia because its long-range missiles are being used by the Nazi regime in Kiev to attack the territory of the Russian Federation. And these are mainly attacks on civilian targets,” Lavrov said.

He stressed that the only path to ending the Ukraine conflict lies in halting Europe’s militaristic course.

“The main thing here... is to ensure that Europe stops sabotaging the movement towards peace, which is supported by both the United States and Türkiye, and to which the Russian Federation is fully committed,” Lavrov said.

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NATO rearmament is completely pointless – Putin

The Russian president has dismissed Western rhetoric about the threat posed by Moscow to the US-led military bloc as an “inconceivable lie”

Russia does not consider NATO rearmament to be a threat, President Vladimir Putin has told journalists on the sidelines of the 28th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Certain threats could arise from the US-led military bloc’s actions, but Russia is ready to address any challenges to national security, Putin said at a Q&A session early Thursday, adding that any increase in defense spending by NATO would not make a difference.

“We do not consider any NATO rearmament to be a threat to the Russian Federation, because we are self-sufficient in terms of ensuring our own security, and we are constantly improving our armed forces and our defense capabilities,” he stated.

The president added that Russia “will mitigate all the threats that may arise.”

Putin dismissed the rhetoric about the threat posed by Russia to NATO as an “inconceivable lie” used by Western governments to justify tax increases and the diversion of public funds to the military-industrial complex.

“A Nazi propagandist once said that the more incredible the lie, the faster people will believe it. This legend that Russia is planning to attack Europe, the NATO countries, is the same inconceivable lie,” Putin said. “Everyone understands that this is nonsense. And they deceive their population to ensure the extraction of money from the budget… and to explain failures in the economy.”

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NATO chief dodges question about why to fear a ‘Russian attack’

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Nazi symbols prevalent in Ukrainian military – Le Monde

Nazism news archive — RT

Nazi symbols prevalent in Ukrainian military – Le Monde

Ukrainian soldiers continue to publicly display neo-Nazi symbols – including swastikas, SS tattoos, and Nazi salutes – according to an investigation by French outlet Le Monde.

In its report, published on Wednesday, Le Monde identified nearly 350 Ukrainian troops posting neo-Nazi imagery online, including Nazi salutes, swastika tattoos, Black Sun emblems, and Totenkopf insignias. According to the research, at least 200 of those identified serve in Kiev’s 3rd Assault Brigade.

Russia has repeatedly accused Kiev of fostering neo-Nazi ideology and glorifying WW2-era Hitler collaborators and has demanded the “denazification” of Ukraine as part of a negotiated peace agreement.

Formed in 2023, the 3rd Assault Brigade is a direct successor of the Azov Regiment – originally created in 2014 by far-right figure, Andrei Biletsky. Azov has been accused by multiple human rights groups, as well as the UN, of war crimes and torture and has been widely criticized for its use of symbols tied to the Waffen-SS.

According to Le Monde, the 3rd Assault Brigade has received military training from several NATO countries, including France, Spain, Germany, the UK and Canada, who have also poured in billions in military support to Ukraine. The paper noted that some soldiers sent to France in 2023 bore visible SS tattoos. When questioned, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces stated that it was the responsibility of Ukraine to vet the personnel.

The report also stated that a number of foreign volunteers who have joined Ukraine’s forces, including French nationals, have affiliations with far-right groups. Some were shown posting Nazi tributes and displaying related tattoos online.

Le Monde further stated that the 3rd Assault Brigade, now expanded into a full corps under Biletsky’s command, has been playing an increasingly central role in Ukraine’s military. The outlet reported that its units continue to use Nazi-associated emblems and feature commanders with visible far-right markings.

Moscow has long condemned Kiev’s elevation of Nazi collaborators to national hero status and has accused Western governments of deliberately ignoring continued neo-Nazi activity in Ukrainian ranks.

In April, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stressed that the rebirth of Nazism cannot be allowed and outlined the destruction of the “Kiev neo-Nazi regime” as a necessary outcome of the Ukraine conflict. He insisted that “a real de-Nazification is required” and that the ideology “needs to be rooted out not only in Ukraine, but in all of Europe.”

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Zelensky has a Nazi problem. He can’t lie his way out of it Opinion

Facts and numbers make his Russia-Hitler comparisons laughably hypocritical

23 Jun, 2025 15:41 Tarik Cyril Amar

Anniversaries can be opportunities. For better or worse. In the case of the recent anniversary of Nazi Germany’s massive attack on the Soviet Union of 22 June 1941 – code-named Operation Barbarossa by the Germans – Ukraine’s beyond best-by-date president Vladimir Zelensky went for the worst. Using his own Telegram channel, Zelensky shared his bizarre view of why that anniversary mattered. In short, because it can serve in the information war against Russia.

“Eighty years ago,” the Kiev regime leader wrote, “the world overcame Nazism and swore ‘Never again.’ But today Russia is repeating the crimes of the Nazis […] Now Ukrainians are fighting against rashism [a pejorative term fusing the words “Russia” and “fascism”] with the same courage with which our ancestors defeated Nazism…”

Where to begin? Why not with the obvious: IF Russia were following Nazi examples, then much of Ukraine would now look like, for instance, Gaza. And while every death is a tragedy, the numbers of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Ukraine War would be of an entirely different order of magnitude.

This is not a matter of opinion. It’s a fact that can be quantified and proven: As of the end of May, the UN counted about 13,279 Ukrainian civilians killed, since the beginning of the large-scale fighting in February 2022. It is true that the UN also warns that these are conservative, minimum figures.

Yet consider some figures for Gaza under Israeli genocidal assault since October 2023. As of early June, the enclave’s health ministry – generally acknowledged as reliable and also conservative with its numbers, notwithstanding Israeli and Western propaganda – has counted over 55,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza alone (Israel’s victims in the West bank and elsewhere should, of course, not be forgotten.)

The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between resistance fighters and civilians, but there is a virtual expert consensus that the share of the latter is unusually high, as you would expect during a genocide. A peer-reviewed study in the prestigious and unbiased medical journal The Lancet, for instance, has estimated that 59.1% of deaths between October 2023 and June 2024 were women, children, and the elderly. Other equally reputable organizations have even estimated around 90% of civilian casualties in Gaza.

Keep in mind that the above is deliberately restricted to minimum estimates. As The Lancet has also shown, the real death toll in Gaza is likely to be far higher. Let’s also not even dwell here on “details,” such as that Gaza now has the highest concentration of child amputees in the world.

For even the bare figures cited suffice to gain a sense of proportion and perspective: Gaza, before the Israeli mass murder attack had a total population of between 2.2 and 2.4 million. Ukraine’s total population on the eve of the large-scale escalation of February 2022 was just over 41 million, according to Ukrainian official sources.

And now compare the numbers of civilian casualties and the total populations. It is obvious: If Vladimir Zelensky is looking for a state that uses methods – if that is the word – of Nazi warfare, then that would be Israel, not Russia. But he cannot say that because Israel is aligned with the US and the West, just like his own regime.

Figures can help expose blatant lies, especially when they are as stunningly unambiguous as in this case. But the quantitative isn’t everything, obviously. What about what social scientists and historians – such as me – call the qualitative dimension? In other words, what about what makes people tick?

In that regard, the West’s proxy war against Russia and via Ukraine has seen one of the most successful operations of political whitewashing in recent memory. Before Kiev, first under Zelensky’s predecessor Petro Poroshenko and then under Zelensky himself, turned Ukraine into a Western tool and battering ram against Russia, at least some Western experts and even mainstream media were well aware that Ukraine had a rapidly growing, increasingly powerful, and extremely subversive (domestically and internationally) far-right movement.

As of 2014, even the BBC was still admitting that Ukrainian media and politicians were deliberately “underplaying” the potency and significance of their far-right. But then, as if on command, Western mainstream media united to belittle this malevolent force, pretending that it was either hardly there (and any impressions to the contrary were, of course, “Russian disinformation”), really harmless (a handful of misunderstood “patriots” with a few tattoos that look Nazi but are really just Tolkien), or on the mend, undergoing a steady and, of course, totally honest conversion to mainstream politics.

What happened in reality was that instead of adjusting to the Western “value” mainstream or Center – wherever that supposedly might be – the Ukrainian far right succeeded in making that mainstream adjust to its will. Probably because real-existing Western “values” have a genuine affinity to fascism anyhow.

Now with the West’s war going badly, as even Western media have to recognize, even French paper of record Le Monde – as russophobic and rarara-proxy war as its worst peers in the US – has noticed that far-right, indeed strictly Neo-Nazi tendencies – polite expression – are alive and kicking in key units of Ukraine’s armed forces. Dear colleagues from France: Congratulations! And you should see the politics.

Since the West and Ukraine are losing the war, expect more of such shocked re-discoveries of what every objective observers has known for a long time: In the Ukraine War, the home of men and women who genuinely enjoy displaying Nazi symbols – from the swastika to the Wolfsangel to the sun wheel – is in Ukraine.

That does not mean that the majority of Ukrainians side with them. But their regime and its controlled media do. The same regime and media droning on about Russia and Nazis. As they – rightly – say about Israel, so about the Zelensky regime: Every accusation is a confession.

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EU becoming an extension of NATO – Lavrov

Russia’s foreign minister has condemned the economic union’s “radical transformation” into an aggressive military bloc

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The European Union is turning into an extension of NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

During a speech at an international forum in Moscow, Lavrov recalled that the EU was initially formed as an economic union that was meant to make life better for its residents in a “socio-economic sense.”

The bloc has undergone a “radical transformation,” he claimed, becoming an “aggressive military-political bloc” that is “essentially a branch, or rather an appendage of NATO.”

Lavrov pointed to an agreement signed between the EU and NATO under which EU member countries, even those that are not part of the military bloc, would be obligated to allow NATO troops and equipment to pass through their territory to an eastern front when required.

The Russian foreign minister said such arrangements mean EU countries are “directly involved in preparations for war against our country.”

Lavrov’s remarks come as US President Donald Trump released screenshots of a series of grovelling messages from NATO chief Mark Rutte in which the former Dutch PM celebrated US attacks on Iran, aped Trump's writing style and boasted of ensuring EU members more-than-double military spending, citing an alleged Russian threat.

Last month, EU member states also adopted a €150 billion ($170 billion) debt plan to fund arms production and military procurement.

Russia has consistently maintained that it harbors no hostile intent towards any EU nation, dismissing the accusations as “nonsense” and fearmongering used to justify increased military spending.

Moscow has also condemned the EU’s new debt initiative, describing it as a continuation of the bloc’s hostile policies and militarization. Russian officials have warned that the spending hikes are tantamount to an “incitement to war on the European continent.”

Speaking to military academy graduates on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the West “came up with this horror story” about a Russian attack and is now repeating it “year after year” to provoke a new arms race and justify “global militarization.”

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“Doing the dirty work for us.”

“Doing the dirty work…” something Germany, like the US, has a long bloody history of “doing.”

In the aftermath of Israel’s first act of aggression against Iran, Germany’s Merz ironically and correctly characterized Israel’s attack as “doing the dirty work for us.” Apparently, Merz was not only speaking for Germany but for the entire EU/NATO regime.

• PHOTO: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. © Omer Messinger / Getty Images (Germany’s Merz praises Israel for doing ‘dirty work for us’: The German chancellor has endorsed the ongoing Israeli strikes against Iran Jun 18, 2025. )

The “dirty work” in question was yet another Israeli war crime in the service of “us” being the US and the collective west, i.e., not only for Germany but for the entire EU/NATO regime, apparently, since they are suffering under self-inflicted financial losses in their failed support of Zelensky's corrupt Ukrainian regime. So, I think that Merz's meaning simply meant that big bucks American "No More War" President Trump could shell out the usual multi-billions in support of another costly Mideast catastrophe.

Israel’s “dirty work” also includes the US and collective west’s support of the horrendous Gaza Genocide operations, yet another in a long historical chain of massive war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Germany’s Merz praises Israel for doing ‘dirty work for us’

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has lauded Israel’s military strikes against Iran, saying the Israeli government and army are doing the “dirty work” of Western nations.

Merz made the remarks in a series of interviews on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, attended by all guarantors of the original 2015 Iran nuclear deal, except for Russia and China.

“This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime,” he said in an interview with ZDF, claiming that “this mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world.”

“I assume that the attacks of the last few days have already weakened the mullah regime considerably and that it is unlikely to return to its former strength, making the future of the country uncertain,” Merz said in a separate interview with Die Welt.

Germany is part of the P5+1 group, which negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2015. Despite his support for the strikes, Merz stated that Berlin is ready to back new negotiations to ensure Iran never obtains nuclear weapons.

West Jerusalem justified its attack on Friday by claiming Iran is on the brink of obtaining nuclear weapons. Tehran has repeatedly denied the accusations, maintaining that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

Iran retaliated by firing dozens of ballistic missiles into Israel, with both sides exchanging attacks ever since. Iran has reported at least 224 deaths since the hostilities began. Israel has reported 24 deaths.

In a joint statement on Monday, the leaders of the G7 called Iran the “principal source of regional instability and terror,” adding: “we have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

US President Donald Trump, who abruptly cut his stay at the G7 summit short, demanded an “unconditional surrender” from Iran on Tuesday.

Washington previously demanded that Tehran stop all uranium enrichment, which Iranian officials described as “completely detached from reality.”

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60% purity, far above the 3.67% cap set under the now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal, which was rendered null and void after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from it during his first term.

Russia has condemned Israel’s initial airstrikes and called for deescalation. President Vladimir Putin spoke with Trump by phone over the weekend, and according to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, the two discussed the possibility of reviving negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.

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Holocaust doesn’t give Israel impunity – Lavrov

The Soviet people were also subject to Nazi genocide, but Russia doesn’t have carte blanche in the global arena, he says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. © Sputnik/Ramil Sitdikov

Israel should not think that the suffering of Jews during World War II gives it free rein in foreign policy, particularly when it comes to the hostilities in Gaza, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking at a press conference on the results of Moscow’s diplomacy in 2023 on Thursday, Lavrov reiterated his support for the creation of a Palestinian state. The decades-long failure to do this is one of the key reasons for the current instability in the Middle East and tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, he added.

The foreign minister noted that Russia had immediately condemned the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7. However, after the hostilities began, some Israeli officials went so far as to call the residents of Gaza “animals” without facing any backlash from the West, he added.

Lavrov added that the Soviet people had suffered no less as they were exterminated in the same Nazi concentration camps as the Jews, with both people dying from starvation side-by-side in besieged Leningrad.

“According to this logic, we can do whatever we want. That won’t work if we want to systematically uphold international law,” he added.

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, with the ensuing fighting killing more than 1,200 Israelis and 24,000 Palestinians. Since then, Israel started a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave, which has caused unprecedented destruction. It has vowed not to stop until Hamas is completely defeated and Palestinian society “deradicalized.”

Russia has repeatedly called on the two sides to agree to a ceasefire while urging Israel not to forget the laws of war.

The Holocaust claimed the lives of around six million Jews in Europe. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union lost some 27 million people during the war, including many Jews, with two-thirds of those losses among the civilian population.

Holocaust doesn’t give Israel impunity – Lavrov — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

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