Yair Lapid, Israel’s foreign minister, also branded the remark ‘scandalous’ and said the Russian ambassador would be summoned for a ‘tough talk’.

But in a statement today, the Russian foreign ministry said Lapid’s comments were ‘anti-historical’ and ‘explaining to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv’.

Moscow reiterated Lavrov’s point that Zelensky’s Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine from being run by neo-Nazis.

‘Anti-Semitism in everyday life and in politics is not stopped and is on the contrary nurtured (in Ukraine),’ it said in a statement.