9 Jan 2020 17:01

Ukraine calls on Israel not to interfere in debates on internal issues of Ukrainian politics

KYIV. Jan 9 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Hennadii Nadolenko has told the Israeli Foreign Ministry that Israeli Ambassador in Kyiv Joel Lion is conducting a counterproductive public debate on internal issues of Ukrainian politics.

"On January 9, Mr. Hennadii Nadolenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel, during the meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel brought to the attention of the Israeli side the Ukrainian position that the public debate held by Mr. Joel Lion, Ambassador of Israel to Ukraine, on internal issues of Ukrainian politics, in particular in the context of the joint statement by the Ambassadors of Israel and the Republic of Poland to Ukraine, dated 2 January 2020, is counterproductive," the Ukrainian embassy in Israel said in a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday.

"The Ambassador of Ukraine emphasized that the revival and preservation of the national memory of the Ukrainian people is one of the main priorities of the state policy of Ukraine. Discussions in this area should be held at the level of historians and experts," the statement said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also said on January 8 in a conversation with Polish Ambassador in Kyiv Bartosz Cichocki that the public debate on internal issues of Ukrainian politics was counterproductive.

On January 2, Cichocki and Lion issued a joint statement on the honoring in Ukraine on January 1 of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (banned in Russia). The ambassadors said they considered it insulting to honor in Ukraine people who "actively promoted ethnic cleansing," adding that they expected the Kyiv city state administration and the council of the Lviv region to join "the search for the truth" in this issue.

As reported earlier, a procession with torches marking the 111th anniversary of the birth of Stepan Bandera, a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (banned in Russia), took place in Kyiv on January 1. About 1,500 people attended the event.