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- Adversity of the word: why did the Israeli Foreign Ministry start harassing the Izvestia journalist
Adversity of the word: why did the Israeli Foreign Ministry start harassing the Izvestia journalist
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has banned Izvestia journalist Nikita Kulyukhin from attending press conferences after asking the country's foreign minister about praising Stepan Bandera in Ukraine. He was also excluded from the journalists' chat conducted by representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. On March 4, a journalist asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Jewish state about the demolition of monuments to Red Army soldiers in Ukraine and the renaming of streets in honor of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who organized the murders of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the German occupation of Ukraine. How obstacles to the work of a Russian journalist can affect relations between Russia and Israel — in the Izvestia article.
The situation around journalist Nikita Kulyukhin
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has restricted the work opportunities of Izvestia journalist Nikita Kulyukhin after he asked the country's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar at a press conference about praising Stepan Bandera in Ukraine. The journalist was suspended from participating in regular Saarland press conferences, and he was also excluded from the messenger media group run by representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Izvestia journalist Nikita Kulyukhin
"The Israeli Foreign Ministry has banned Kulyukhin from participating in future press conferences," the Israeli magazine Seventh Eye says.
On March 4, a journalist asked the Israeli Foreign Minister about the demolition of monuments to Red Army soldiers in Ukraine and the renaming of streets in honor of Bandera and Shukhevych, who organized the murders of hundreds of thousands of Jews during the German occupation of Ukraine.
— First of all, I didn't know about it. We will check and, if necessary, condemn. No problem at all. We are committed to the memory of the Holocaust. We must fight anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and Holocaust denial. This is very important to us. I will order an investigation and, if necessary, we will condemn, without a doubt," the Israeli politician replied.
The politician's response was immediately noticed in Moscow. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, reacted to the words of the Israeli minister in her Telegram channel.
The Israeli Embassy in Moscow
"What do you mean? Then what is the Israeli Embassy in Kiev doing? And in Moscow too. It turns out that they have never reported the facts to the capital?" she wrote.
Stepan Bandera collaborated with Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War, and until 1959 headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, banned in the Russian Federation).
The OUN's combat wing, the militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (banned in the Russian Federation), who began to be called Bandera by name, have committed many crimes. About 100,000 Poles, Czechs, and Jews of Western Ukraine died at their hands.
A few days later, the Israeli Foreign Ministry harassed the Izvestia correspondent. Nikita Kulyukhin was called a propagandist for his truthful and honest question.
— I asked a common question that many Israelis are very offended by. After three years, does Israel finally want to condemn Ukraine for changing street names and erecting new monuments for collaborators, for people who were responsible for the murder of so many Jews during World War II and the Holocaust? And for some reason, this confused the Minister of Foreign Affairs very much," Kulyukhin himself explained. — It seems to me that they don't want to answer this because they are most likely afraid of an international scandal.
If there really is some kind of pressure on a Russian journalist, in Israel or in some other country, this is an unacceptable thing, says Alexander Kargin, an expert on Israel and the Middle East.
— There is freedom of the press. If a journalist asked a question, he had every right to do so. And if they somehow infringe on him because of this, of course, this is unacceptable," the expert told Izvestia.
It is worth noting that in June 2023, the Israeli Ambassador to Kiev, Mikhail Brodsky, said that while military operations were underway in Ukraine, Israel was ready to put up with the support of Bandera and Shukhevych. He added that the Jews' view of them was "very different from that of Ukrainians." He also confirmed that these people supported the ideology of Nazism as part of their struggle for the country's independence.
By the way, before the start of its operation, the Israeli authorities regularly called on Ukraine to fight the glorification of the Nazis and condemned the glorification of collaborators. After the coup in 2014, a law was passed in Ukraine that involves the dismantling of monuments and the renaming of topographic sites related to the history of the USSR. Often, streets are not just stripped of the names of Russian figures, but are completely renamed in honor of Ukrainian nationalists.
Israel's relations with Russia and Ukraine
In July 2022, the former Minister of Defense of the Jewish state, Benny Gantz, said that Israel sides with the West and Kiev in the situation around Ukraine, but maintains a dialogue with Russia and is ready to contribute to the settlement of the conflict. The politician also recalled that Israel constantly provides humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and supplies non-lethal equipment. At the same time, there were calls in the country to provide military assistance to Ukraine following the example of the United States and other NATO countries.
In June 2024, Western media reported that the United States, Israel and Ukraine were negotiating to supply Kiev with up to eight Patriot air defense systems. They stressed that although the agreement has not yet been finalized, it probably involves sending Patriots from Israel to the United States, and then to Ukraine.
However, in June 2024, relations between Israel and Ukraine became more complicated: the Jewish state de facto abolished the visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens. In response, Kiev announced that it would impose entry restrictions on Israelis, in particular for Hasidic Jewish pilgrims who visit Uman in the Cherkasy region on the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.
Ukraine's Ambassador to Israel, Yevhen Korniychuk, stressed at the time that over the past few years Tel Aviv had taken unfriendly measures that imposed additional travel restrictions on Ukrainians.
Against the background of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, relations between Israel and the Russian Federation have become more complicated. The Israeli Ambassador to Moscow, Simone Halperin, stressed in January 2025 that Israel considers relations with Russia to be extremely important and expects them to continue to strengthen in the future. She noted that there are issues on which there is close cooperation, and those where the countries have "some differences."
It is worth noting here that earlier Galperin expressed dissatisfaction with Moscow's policy in the Middle East. In particular, she criticized the position of the Russian Federation after the events of October 7, in particular, allegedly because of the late reaction. Halperin also expressed the opinion that Moscow is in solidarity with South Africa, which has filed a lawsuit against Israel in the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide of the Palestinians. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the Israeli diplomat's statements about Moscow's policy unacceptable and anti-Russian.
Nevertheless, Russia and Israel currently maintain multifaceted, constructive and trusting relations, despite global and regional challenges, Russian Ambassador to the country Anatoly Viktorov said in February 2025. The Ambassador noted that now is not the best period in bilateral relations, but stressed that in the past there have been ups and downs for various reasons.
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