The Simon Wiesenthal Center has condemned comments made by a senior military prosecutor, who suggested that Jews seek bloodshed in Ukraine. 

Col. Gen. Anatolii Matios, Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor made the comments in an interview with the Insider magazine.

Mr Matios said communist Jewish theoretician, Alexander Parvus supported a revolution that “drenched Slavs with blood for decades.” 

He added: “There is always a Parvus. They want to do the same to Ukraine.”

Efraim Zuroff, Eastern Europe director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Mr Matios’ comments were “outrageous and false.” 

Mr Zuroff said the “antisemitic implication from Matios’ words are undeniable,” and called for him to be fired. 

Dovid Katz, a vocal activist against antisemitism in Lithuania and Eastern Europe, also called for Mr Matios to lose his job. 

He wrote on Twitter: “Any senior EU military official who suggested Jews wanted to drown the country in blood would be removed immediately.”

Mr Zuroff said the comments were evidence of  “a bigger problem, which is the resurgence of virulent anti-Semitism in Ukraine.”

There have been 130 antisemitic incidents in Ukraine since 2016, which Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs said was double the previous rate.