Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Israel’s campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip amounted to genocide.
“What is currently happening in Gaza in response to the terrorist attack on Israel does not resemble a war at all. It is akin to the complete elimination of the civilian population,” said the Russian leader.
Putin blamed the United States for the situation, accusing it of “monopolizing” the peace process. “They pushed aside all previously established mechanisms for collective efforts to solve this extremely difficult problem,” he said.
“It is not possible to solve the problem with some material offerings. The real issue, political matters, need to be resolved. This involves creating two states, as foreseen in the U.N.’s decision to establish two states in this territory, a Palestinian state and a Jewish state,” he continued.
Putin praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been an outspoken critic of Israel, even calling its leaders Nazis.
“We know that President Erdogan has made vigorous efforts to solve this very urgent and longstanding issue. Considering President Erdogan’s authority in the region, the world and the Islamic world, we expect his contribution to be noticeable,” he said.
He added that Russia is ready to help in any way possible.
Israel-Russia ties have been strained since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7.
In December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a tense phone conversation with Putin in which he expressed “dismay” about the recent anti-Israel positions taken by Russian representatives at the United Nations and other international fora, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Netanyahu said he had emphasized to Putin that “any country that would suffer a criminal terrorist attack such as Israel experienced would act with no less force” than has Israel.
The Israeli leader also strongly criticized the Kremlin’s “dangerous” cooperation with the Iranian regime.
On Oct. 25, Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Hamas for its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, during which terrorists murdered more than 1,200 people.
The next day, Israel condemned Russia for hosting a delegation of Hamas terrorists in Moscow, calling it “an act of support of terrorism.”
In November, Bloomberg reported that the Israel Defense Forces had stopped warning Russian forces in Syria ahead of every airstrike it carries out in the country, citing “people familiar with the situation.”
The IDF did not warn Russia ahead of an Oct. 30 strike on a military base in Daraa in southwestern Syria, or when Israeli jets attacked a Syrian base housing Hezbollah terrorists five days earlier, according to the report.