New Delhi: Ukraine's deputy minister of foreign affairs Emine Dzheppar on Tuesday (May 2) apologised on Twitter for a tweet by the country's defence ministry, which she said had depicted the goddess Kali in a "distorted manner".

Dzheppar's tweet comes a day after a controversy on social media over the now-deleted tweet. The image tweeted was created by Ukrainian artist Maksym Palenko, and showed a Kali-like figure standing in Marylin Monroe's signature pose. The image was tweeted along with the text "Work of art".

Several people took to Twitter to say that the defence ministry's tweet was "Hinduphobic" and "disrespectful". Among those who expressed their disagreement was Kanchan Gupta, senior advisor, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, according to India Today.

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