Dani Dayan, chairman of the Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, has stated that it was the right decision to reject Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky’s request for a speech at the institution.
Kiev’s ambassador to Israel approached Yad Vashem shortly after the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, seeking permission for Zelensky to address members of the national legislature and other officials during an international broadcast. The request was denied.
Dayan explained that he anticipated Zelensky would draw parallels between the Holocaust and the ongoing Ukraine conflict, which he deemed unacceptable. “Not every war crime is genocide, and not every genocide is a Holocaust,” Dayan stated in remarks published in a German newspaper.
Dayan also indicated that he would have had to intervene during the event to prevent Zelensky from distorting history. He emphasized that “in Ukraine, there were not only victims of the Holocaust. Ukrainians were also [Nazi] accomplices, and, in some cases, primary perpetrators.”
The remarks follow Russia’s longstanding accusations that Kyiv promotes neo-Nazism and glorifies Nazi collaborators, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which conducted mass killings against Poles and Jews between 1943 and 1945.
Zelensky had previously attempted to frame Ukraine as the victim of a Holocaust-like genocide when addressing Israeli officials via video conference in March 2022. His language sparked strong reactions, including from religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich, who labeled it “infuriating and ridiculous,” and Israel’s then-communications minister Yoaz Hendel, who called the comparison “outrageous.”
