Ukraine’s president has compared his country’s battle against Russia to the fight against Nazi Germany during a speech before the French National Assembly.
In an address brimming with symbolism, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told French parliamentarians on Friday that Putin, like Hitler, had crossed ‘line after line’.
Zelenskyy said: “It is the same now as it was when evil was unleashing its aggression against its neighbors in the 1930s.
“Hitler crossed line after line. Putin is doing the same.”
The Ukrainian president added: “We live in a time when, unfortunately, Europe is no longer a continent of peace, when Nazism returns again, when cities are completely destroyed and villages are burned.
“When filtration camps, deportations, and hatred appear again in Europe, which has become a new Russian cult.
“When Europe is being forcibly divided again and it is said that some nations do not deserve an independent existence.”
He added that all this “is directed against Ukraine.”
Warning that Putin does not recognize borders, Zelenskyy went on to say that the Baltic states, Poland, the Balkan countries, and others may become further victims of Russian aggression.
The speech comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will provide Ukraine with Mirage 2000 fighter jets and train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers.
Zelenskyy said: “It is the same now as it was when evil was unleashing its aggression against its neighbors in the 1930s.
“Hitler crossed line after line. Putin is doing the same.”
The Ukrainian president added: “We live in a time when, unfortunately, Europe is no longer a continent of peace, when Nazism returns again, when cities are completely destroyed and villages are burned.
“When filtration camps, deportations, and hatred appear again in Europe, which has become a new Russian cult.
“When Europe is being forcibly divided again and it is said that some nations do not deserve an independent existence.”
He added that all this “is directed against Ukraine.”
Warning that Putin does not recognize borders, Zelenskyy went on to say that the Baltic states, Poland, the Balkan countries, and others may become further victims of Russian aggression.
The speech comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will provide Ukraine with Mirage 2000 fighter jets and train 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers.
Source: Reuters/PAP
More In Politics MORE...
