Russian invasion ‘pure Nazism,’ says Ukrainian president

Zelensky charges that Putin’s treatment of Ukrainians is comparable to Hitler’s genocide of Jews during World War II.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky called the Russian invasion of his country “pure Nazism” during a Zoom call with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported Monday.

“Listen, all of this already happened. In Europe,” Zelenksy was quoted as saying. “All of this happened during Nazi times when the German army rolled through Europe and everyone gave the Jewish people away.”

He added that Russian president Vladimir Putin was acting as Hitler did during the Holocaust.

“This is just pure Nazism,” Zelensky charged. “He’s just destroying the citizens of Ukraine of different nationalities. This is just pure Nazi behavior. I can’t even qualify this in any different manner.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Zelensky and his administration have repeatedly invoked the Holocaust in order to pressure Israel and other Western countries into intervening on Ukraine’s behalf.

Last week, Zelensky announced that a Russian missile had damaged the Babyn Yar Memorial, which commemorates the slaughter of some 33,000 during World War II at the hands of Ukrainians.

In an impassioned speech about the incident, Zelensky said that the damage was symbolic of a second Holocaust and that Putin had Nazi-like intentions to “erase” the Ukrainian people, in the same way that Hitler aimed to erase the Jews.

The claim that the memorial was damaged was proven to be false after an Israeli journalist in Kyiv went to the site and found it intact.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba charged that Israel’s national airline, El Al, was circumventing sanctions on Russia and accepting Russian money via a backdoor route.

Kuleba said the airline was making “money soaked in Ukrainian blood.” He did not provide any evidence to support this claim.

The allegation was vehemently denied by El Al.

Earlier in March, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel demanded that the Jewish State unquestioningly admit non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees.

Because some Ukrainians saved their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust, the envoy said, Israel should return the favor and grant blanket refugee status to all Ukrainians at its borders.

He also complained that Israel had not sent Ukraine military technology and weapons.

Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist who is widely hailed as a folk hero throughout the country and was given the Hero of Ukraine Award in 2010, was the head of a militia that collaborated with the Nazis to kill tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews and Polish civilians.