Anonymous ID: 788664 July 28, 2022, 2:36 a.m. No.16891506   šŸ—„ļø.is šŸ”—kun

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-run-by-miserable-jews-says-rebel-chief/

Ukraine run by ā€˜miserable Jews,ā€™ says rebel chief

Leader of the Donetsk Peopleā€™s Republic calls for ā€˜Cossacksā€™ to take back country from pro-Western leaders

DONETSK, Ukraine ā€” Ukraineā€™s pro-Russian rebel chief on Monday branded the countryā€™s leaders ā€œmiserableā€ Jews in an apparent anti-Semitic jibe.

Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peopleā€™s Republic, claimed that Kievā€™s pro-Western leaders were ā€œmiserable representatives of the great Jewish people.

ā€œI canā€™t remember a time when Cossacks were led by people who have never held a sword in their hands,ā€ Zakharchenko told a press conference in the eastern rebel stronghold of Donetsk, in a reference to Ukraineā€™s nationalist forebears, the Cossacks.

Zakharchenko said that the countryā€™s historical nationalists ā€œwould turn in their graves if they could see who is running Ukraine.ā€

Anti-Semitic sentiment remains widespread in Ukraine, where leaders are commonly labelled as Jewish by those seeking to discredit them.

The comments by Zakharchenko, who was flanked by the leader of the neighboring rebel-held region of Lugansk, Igor Plotnitsky, were carried live by Russian news channel Rossiya-24.

The rebels leaders on Monday announced a mass call-up, aimed at bolstering their forces to 100,000 troops.

Fighting between Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russian rebels, which has claimed 5,100 lives since April, has surged in recent weeks after the collapse of a tenuous ceasefire deal.