What has been happening in Ukraine in the last decade cannot fail to generate perplexity, especially because of the open way in which hatred is spread against a population so small in number and so thriving in work. There are more and more organizations, newspapers, and bloggers proclaiming anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and defining the country as a "Jewish oligarchy." The internet is full of this poison. The names of Jewish businessmen are constantly being assassinated civically and linked to immoral business dealings, especially since Volodymyr Zelensky became president of the republic.

Blatant antisemitic manifestations have been going on for well over a decade. The examples are many and difficult to list. In 2015, when a fighter pilot, elected with great fanfare to parliament, publicly declared that "Jews hold 80% of the power in Ukraine," he was simply shouting aloud what multiple organizations had long proclaimed in the shadows of anonymity. The same thing happened in 2017, when a general proclaimed "that Jews are not Ukrainians" and that "Ukraine should be governed by Ukrainians."

The most serious case occurred in 2020, when the National Police embarked on an investigation of "transnational organized groups" and demanded that the president of the Jewish community in the city of Kolomyia send them the names of "all members of the community, as well as those of foreign Jewish students residing in the city." This unusual demand was not made of Orthodox Christians or Greek Catholics, but only of Jews.

It seems serious enough, but it is much worse. The “anti-oligarchy” laws discussed and approved in 2021 once again targeted Jews. In the heat of the debates, the phrase most often heard was that “Ukrainian money is going into the pockets of Jews.” Who are the “Jews”? All the wealthy Jews who have supported the Jewish community since the fall of the Soviet Union are accused of owning luxury homes in Tel Aviv, Florida, London, and Geneva after allegedly “getting rich with Ukrainian money” and continuing to accumulate their “stolen profits.”

The cases reported above do nothing more than make more visible a growing sentiment among important sectors of Ukrainian society. The “anti-oligarchy” laws targeted only Jews, and in major cities there are lists with the names of Jews circulating from hand to hand. The National Police have already been forced to apologize to the Jewish community for the 2020 process, and not coincidentally, the police chief was subsequently arrested in a case of embezzlement. Nothing has changed, however. The antisemitic label has been amplified since Volodymyr Zelensky came to power.

Volodymyr Groysman, the former prime-minister, is Jewish, as is Andrey Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office. The Ukrainian political body is frequently accused of serving the interests of a "Jewish oligarchy." To that end, lists of Jews labeled "oligarchs" circulate, permanently destroying their reputations in the public eye, cases of Hennadiy Korban, Vadim Rabinovich, Timur Mindich, Hennadiy Kernes, Pavel Fuks, Alexander Feldman, Victor Pinchuk, Zvi Hirsch Bogolyubov, the brothers Hryhoriy and Igor Surkis, and of course Igor Kolomoisky, almost all with Israeli nationality, which was already publicly defined s a "national dishonesty".

Conspiracy theories always start from insignificant facts to give rise to accusations of imminent dangers to society. The armored Mercedes that Zelensky used in the election campaign belonged to the Jewish philanthropist Timur Mindich and a member of the administrative council of the Jewish community of Dnipropetrovsk, of which Igor Kolomoisky was president. In the past, Zelensky and the brothers Serhiy and Boris Shefir produced content for Kolomoisky's TV stations through their production company, Kvartal 95, and Zelensky's political rise began after his leading role in the political satire "Servant of the People," which aired on Kolomoisky and Alexander Rodnyansky's 1+1 network. In addition, Zelensky donated his stake in the company Maltex Multicapital Corp. to Serhiy Shefir, who would become his main presidential advisor. These minor facts would be nothing strange, all of this is the natural development of human life, were it not for the fact that they are all Jewish. From these minutiae, many antisemites took the conclusion that the Jews govern Ukraine, and it is added that "they" want the harm of the entire population.

On November 9, 2025, Timur Mindich was the target of a National Police operation aimed again at the alleged economic crimes of the "Jewish oligarchs." Mindich is Israeli and a supporter of Chabad of Kiev and Chabad Moscow's "Marina Rocha" synagogue. However, the target of the operation was not in Ukraine, but in Israel, where he frequently travels for personal and business reasons. President Zelensky was immediately accused in Ukrainian power circles of having warned "his Jewish friend" to flee.

In times of crisis, the scapegoat is always the Jewish community. It was so in antiquity, and it is so now. The accusation has always been linked to the word power. This supposed power was previously combated with the false argument of faith, and today it is through the "parasitic" word corruption. It's easy. Once the stain is placed on an unfortunate person, sad days are reserved for them. The word always appears poorly defined, but this seems to be the new weapon against the Jews. States always tend to consider themselves "robbed" by "rich" Jews, whom they call "oligarchs," especially in the former Soviet countries, of which Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan are the best examples.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the "guilt of the Jews"

Zelensky's situation as head of the Ukrainian state is complex. In the West, he was even called "a new Churchill," but political rumors are growing in Ukraine that the war is the fault of the Jews, and especially of Zelensky and Kolomoisky, the latter for having financed ultranationalist groups that favored war and not a "Ukraine for the Ukrainians." Another fact that was not well interpreted by conspiracy theorists was the close relationship between Zelensky and Roman Abramovich, who sought to mediate a peace agreement in 2022. From this amalgamation of scattered facts, new theories have emerged associated with a supposed "Jewish scheme," as if Kolomoisky and Abramovich had not had a broken relationship for many years and truly cannot stand each other.

While tens of thousands of body bags continue their grim journey to the cemeteries of Kiev and Moscow, there is little doubt that in the near future the "blame" will be placed on the Jews. This conclusion does not apply only to Ukraine, as in Russia the facts do not suggest otherwise. On October 26, 2022, the Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar called on the Kremlin to denounce official’s ‘vulgar’ antisemitism, saying Alexei Pavlov posed a “huge danger” to the Jewish community in the country. The call to condemn the antisemite, assistant secretary of Russia’s Security Council, came in response to an article he wrote claiming that “neo-pagan cults of the Chabad movement" had taken over Ukraine. Pavlov added that Chabad’s guiding principle was to enshrine its superiority “above all nations and peoples,” and therefore it had become “increasingly urgent to carry out the de-satanization of Ukraine.” Lazar, leader of Chabad in Russia, demanded "a condemnation from the government for the nonsense” written by Pavlov, which was “an insult to millions of Jewish believers, including the vast majority of Jews in Russia.” Such a statement, “uttered by a member of the Russian Security Council… poses a huge danger; therefore, we demand an immediate and unequivocal response from society and the authorities of the state,” he added. The high-ranking Russian official was dismissed from his post by the Kremlin, but the antisemitic mark has not been forgotten to this day.

The Russian Jewish community and its highest officials believe that Vladimir Putin has always made and continues to make an uncompromising defense of the Jewish community, which is today the strongest in Europe in religious and cultural terms. The Chabad movement encompasses synagogues, charitable networks, museums, cinemas, and much more. Raised in a Jewish context, with Jewish neighbors, friends, and teachers, and with the true religious, cultural, and hereditary identity of his mother always poorly debated, the Russian president began his presidency calling for the return of ex-Soviet Jews, especially from Israel and the United States. The Jewish masses returned en masse. The problem, according to Russian Jewish leaders, will arise in the era that follows Putin, because, as in Ukraine, the Jewish community and its monumental infrastructure were built thanks to the efforts of local Jewish businessmen, invariably treated as "oligarchs" by sectors of power and vast sectors of the population, and there are justified fears that the wealthier Jews will be robbed of everything again, as happened in the USSR. In Kazakhstan, exactly the same phenomenon occurs, with the presence, unwanted by many, of Chabad Lubavitch and the "Jewish oligarchs".

Until the day Elon Musk showed non-socialist tendencies, the only human beings on Earth who were called oligarchs were the former Soviet Jews who remained in the land of their ancestors trying to recover what the USSR had stolen from them. The most blatant example was the dispossession that once victimized Nachman Leibovich Abramovich in Lithuania, who saw all his and his wife's assets stolen – vast properties and boats – which happened again to his grandson Roman Abramovich during the war in Ukraine that began in 2022, precisely with the seizure in multiple countries of vast properties and boats, and this time even airplanes. Further seizures were only prevented because President Zelensky asked the United States to halt ongoing measures. It is true that the epithet of "oligarch" caused much devastation. Even in Portugal, authorities tried to seize a property belonging to the "oligarch" in Algarve, but it turned out to belong to a peaceful British couple who are now demanding substantial compensation from the state.