George Stephanopoulos Grills Russia’s Lavrov: Do You Believe Zelensky, Ukraine’s First Jewish President, ‘Is a Nazi?’

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos interrogated Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over his country’s war with Ukraine and claims that Ukraine is infested by neo-Nazis.

Good Morning America aired Stephanopoulos’ participation in a press roundtable roundtable shown in Russia on Thursday, and the ABC News anchor started by asking Lavrov “how can you defend” Russia’s lies and attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Lavrov’s answer:

Conjectures, and there’s a great deal of these now. But you know, if you paid attention to the fact that Europe mostly, and the United States, are trying to close down all of the outlets, media outlets and information sources broadcast from Russia on how the special military operation advances, and how the Ukrainian army and the Neo-Nazi battalions behave towards these fool civilians. They rob and rip off the Donbas settlements…They behave like pillagers and marauders.

Lavrov’s mention of Neo-Nazis comes after Vladimir Putin has been condemned internationally for his false claim to have invaded Ukraine on a so-called “de-Nazification” campaign. After Lavrov once again called the Ukrainian government a “neo-Nazi regime,” Stephanopoulos asked him “do you believe that President [Volodymyr] Zelensky, the first Jewish president of Ukraine, whose parents were killed in the Holocaust, is a Nazi?”

“I think the Nazis and neo-Nazis manipulate him,” Lavrov claimed. “Otherwise, it is hard to account how President Zelensky can preside over a society where neo-Nazis make strife. They make marches and torch processions. And for the torch processions, President Zelensky allocates has his personal guards from his company, and they train constantly, studying acts of sabotage and warfare in urban areas. And that is all happening under President Zelensky.”

Despite Russia’s attempts to smear the government of Ukraine, there is zero evidence of Zelensky’s government committing a Holocaust-like genocide, nor is there any evidence that his administration supports pro-Nazi Ukrainian nationalist groups. Nonetheless, Lavrov continued to call Zelensky a “Neo-Nazi president” by claiming Ukraine has laws that suppress Russians within the country.

Watch above, via ABC.