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In September 1938, Hitler and Mussolini met Neville Chamberlain and the French PM and ended up leaving with the Sudetenland territory after Britain and France gave it up to keep the dictators happy
A top expert has compared peace talks in Saudi Arabia to discussions held before World War II to appease fascist dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, warning of a terrifying potential trajectory for the world depending on the outcome.
Kyiv was left out of the high-level discussions in Riyadh today, where top US and Russian officials are discussing the steps needed to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. It comes days before the third anniversary of Putin’s invasion.
Also missing from the meeting were representatives from Europe, Ukraine’s allies who have funded and supported the country since Putin ordered Russian boots on Ukrainian soil in February 2022. European leaders fear they’re being sidelined as Trump rages on with his cavalier attitude to foreign policy.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed his country will not accept any outcome from today’s talks as Kyiv has not had its chance to participate. Renowned international expert on European Affairs, Professor Anthony Glees, said many will be watching the talks unfold with a sense of “foreboding” – which has not been seen “since 1938 when the UK and france met Hitler and Mussolini to sign away lands to appease the fascist dictators”.
In September 1938, Hitler and Mussolini sat down with then prime minister Neville Chamberlain and France’s Édouard Daladier in Munich to sign away part of Czechoslovakia to the fascists, despite not a single member of the Czechoslovak government taking part in the talks. Professor Glees warned today’s talks could see the world heading along a far more terrifying trajectory, similar to the one an emboldened Hitler carved out when he thought no one would stand in his way.
“It [The Munich Agreement] was sold as ‘peace with honour’ and a ‘peace in our time’,” the professor explained. “But within months Hitler swallowed all of Czechoslovakia and within a year Europe was at war and millions died. Even Neville Chamberlain doubted his own deal because he began rapid rearmament programmes on his return to the UK.
“That’s the picture Europe has before its eyes right now. A small but brave free democracy fighting for its life is forced to be a bystander as its sovereignty is destroyed by Trump and Putin, both land grabbers, both megalomaniacs, brothers in bullying others.
“It’s outrageous that Trump has humiliated Zelensky in the past and now, literally, tramples over him. Whilst we know Putin is fully aware of the history of the last century, Trump and his administration are either clueless about what happens when free nations are sacrificed to war lords or (more likely) they couldn’t care less.”
