Ukrainian official condemned for suggesting Jews want bloodshed in his country

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.