Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia ‘has brought the terrible past [of Nazism during WWII] back’ and likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is reminiscing tactics used by Nazi-led Germany in World War II after a nighttime barrage of attacks at Ukraine’s power grid.
The Ukrainian President drew parallels to the historic global conflict while calling out the latest Russian offensive in a war that has devastated Ukraine for more than two years, sparking a major humanitarian crisis and with an impact felt in the economy and geopolitics across the world. Wednesday’s bombardment blasted targets in seven Ukrainian regions, including the Kyiv area and parts of the south and west, damaging homes and the country’s rail network, authorities said.
Three people, including an 8-year-old girl, were injured, according to officials. In an address on the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II, Zelenskyy likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler and referenced Russian actions including “mass graves, blockade of ports, seizure of grain, tortures, executions, deportation of children, filtration camps” to suggest that the world should consider Russia’s strategies similar to Nazism.
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Zelenskyy said: “The Battle of Kyiv, bombing of Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, mass graves, blockade of ports, plundering and seizure of grain, tortures, executions, deportation of children, filtration camps, and colonies for captives. Russia has brought pages from textbooks about World War II back into the headlines of the world’s media. Russia has brought the terrible past back into the daily news, proving with each new crime that Nazism has revived. Just this time it has a new label: ‘Made in Russia’.”
Russia has repeatedly pounded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the war that is stretching into its third year and has claimed thousands of lives. By taking out the power, the Kremlin’s forces aim to rob Ukrainian manufacturing of its energy supply, especially military plants, and crush public morale.
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Russian attacks have damaged nearly half of Ukraine’s power infrastructure since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, officials say. The damage is estimated at $12.5 billion (£10 billion), with $1 billion (£800 million) inflicted during the past two weeks, according to the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Committee on Energy and Housing Services, Andrii Herus.
The mass barrages also drain Ukrainian air defences of ammunition as Kyiv’s depleted forces await delivery of the latest batch of promised Western military support. Ukrainian officials have been pleading for more NATO-standard air defence systems, such as the Patriots.
Zelenskyy added: “Today, Hitler’s ideas are voiced in Russian. Nazi crimes are committed under the Russian flag. The difference is merely formal. The new Wehrmacht that invaded Ukraine wears a double-headed eagle on its sleeves. Kalibrs and Kinzhals are the new V-weapons, MiGs and Su-aircrafts are the new Luftwaffe, a Z symbol is the new swastika, and Yunarmiya is the new Hitlerjugend. There are dozens of similar parallels and hundreds of similar emulations.
“And if the modern Kremlin resembles the Third Reich in everything, its end should be identical, taking place in the new Nuremberg – in the city of The Hague.”
Putin has framed the recent attacks as retaliation for Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries. On Wednesday, a Ukrainian attack hit an oil terminal, injuring five workers and starting a fire, Russia-appointed authorities in the partially occupied Luhansk region said.
Russian bombardments, though frequent, have become less regular in recent weeks, and Ukrainian officials suspect Moscow is stockpiling resources ahead of a major battlefield offensive that could come within weeks.
