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In a speech peppered with Nazi comparisons on Friday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy countered Russia’s talking points, claiming Moscow’s strategy was “more cynical.”
Zelenskyi said there were operational differences between today’s Russian armed forces and the Nazis during World War II, but said Moscow’s persistent lies are what separate the two.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine on Tuesday. (Press Office of the President of Ukraine via AP)
NATO is preparing for massive military exercises while Russia continues to invade Ukraine
“Russian troops manage to be even more cynical than the Nazis were 80 years ago,” he said. “Back then, the invaders didn’t say that it was the residents of Mariupol and the city’s defenders who shot and killed themselves.”
Russia has announced that it will completely control the eastern areas around the Donbass as part of its “military special operation”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed without evidence that his plans are to “denazify” Ukraine and liberate oppressed Russian sympathizers.
Zelensky, who was democratically elected and Jewish, flatly denied these allegations.
Smoke rises above the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this still image taken from drone video recently posted to social media. (MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL/via REUTERS THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALE. NO ARCHIVE.)
“If the Russian invaders manage to at least partially implement their plans, they will still have enough artillery and aircraft to destroy the entire Donbass,” he said. “Just like they destroyed Mariupol.
“The city, which was one of the most developed in the region, is simply a Russian concentration camp amidst ruins,” he added.
Mariupol was one of the hardest-hit cities during Russia’s war in Ukraine and remains controversial as Russia has been unable to take full control of it – despite Putin’s claims of a victory earlier this month.
CONGRESS REVIVES THE WORLD WAR II ERA PROGRAM USED TO DEFEAT HITLER TO DEVELOP AID IN UKRAINE
A senior defense official told reporters on Friday Russia is attempting to seize control of Donbass, pinching it through Izyum from the north, through Mariupol to the south and across from previously held eastern strongholds.
“But they face fierce Ukrainian resistance directly. Therefore, we believe this progress has been slow and uneven,” the official said. “We believe and appreciate that they are behind schedule in what they wanted to achieve in Donbas.”
Congress this week revived a World War II-era program that was instrumental in defeating the Nazis by removing certain parameters to allow allies to receive military support more efficiently.
A Ukrainian BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher shelled a Russian troop position near Luhansk in Donbass on Sunday. (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
The “Lend-Lease program” will provide easier defense loan options for Kyiv as well as “Eastern European countries affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
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Zelenskyi supported the move, saying: “I am sure that Lend-Lease will now help Ukraine and the whole free world to defeat the ideological successors of the Nazis who started a war against us on our country.
“Lend-Lease and other programs in support of Ukraine are concrete proof that liberty is still able to defend itself against tyranny,” he added.