Vladimir Putin continues to interpret history in his own way, comparing the crimes of the Nazi regime to alleged crimes committed by Kiev, while preaching about the lessons to be learned from the past, this time on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date was also marked by the Ukrainian leader, on a day marked by the intensification of fighting in the east of the country.
Ukraine’s president urged the world to unite against “indifference” and “hatred” on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp – built by Nazi Germany in Poland – by the Red Army. “Today, as always, Ukraine honors the memory of millions of victims of the Holocaust. We know and remember that indifference kills together with hatred,” Volodymyr Zelensky, who is of Jewish descent, said in a video statement.
The Ukrainian leader did not mix the date with the war in his country, unlike his Russian counterpart. Putin has repeated the claim that neo-Nazis are committing crimes in Ukraine, one of his justifications for escalating the proxy war he started in 2014 to the invasion last February. “This is evidenced by crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing and punitive actions organized by neo-Nazis in Ukraine. It is against this evil that our soldiers fight bravely,” history leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies.
On the 78th anniversary of the Soviet army’s liberation of Auschwitz, Putin further warned that “any attempt to review Russia’s contributions to the ‘Great Victory’ amounts in reality to justifying the crimes of Nazism and paving the way for the rebirth of its deadly ideology”.
The Putin regime’s policy of glorifying the achievements of the Soviet Union took on a new dimension with the start of the “special military operation”, in which Moscow appealed to patriotic pride and did not miss any opportunity to defeat the elected depicting organs in Kiev as illegal and criminal. In this context, he even went so far as to say that the people of Donbass, in the east of the country, were victims of genocide because they spoke Russian. And when he launched the invasion in February, he said one of the goals was the “denazification” of Ukraine.
In Moscow, the absence of the Auschwitz ceremony is seen by the chief rabbi as a “humiliation”.
The date was celebrated at the former extermination camp in the presence of Polish politicians, the US ambassador to Warsaw and Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, as well as survivors and relatives. However, due to the offensive in Ukraine, the Auschwitz Museum did not invite Russian representatives to the ceremony. “Russia will need an extremely long and very deep self-assessment after this conflict in order to return to gatherings of the civilized world,” museum spokesman Piotr Sawicki told AFP.
Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, who had been received by Putin the day before, was also outraged by this office. “This is clearly a humiliation, because we know and remember perfectly the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Auschwitz and in the victory over Nazism. There is no place for these political games on the day of the Holocaust,” Lazar criticized .
The Red Army consisted mostly of Russian soldiers, but also of other nationalities. The contribution of Ukrainians is estimated to be between 4.5 million and 7 million military personnel out of a total of 34 million during the Great Patriotic War, the name Moscow gave to World War II.
On a visit to Romania after Ukraine and Moldova, the French foreign minister summarized the European position on Putin’s statements. “It’s an unworthy provocation on a day like today,” Catherine Colonna noted.
Attack for reinforcements
On the ground, Russian forces are stepping up offensive operations, particularly in the Donetsk region, where the attempt to attack Bakhmut continues, and now also Vuhledar, in the south. In his daily post, Zelensky acknowledged the “extremely serious” situation in Donetsk, adding that Russian forces not only attacked Ukrainian positions but also destroyed surrounding towns and villages.
According to British military analyst Sean Bell, commenting on Sky News, Russia wants to “gain some momentum” before Western tanks are at the service of Kiev. In this regard, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that his country will send an additional 60 tanks to the 14 Leopard 2 already announced. The partners had pledged to send a minimum of 105 tanks, a number that has already been exceeded, but well below the “300 to 500 that Ukraine needs now,” Zelensky estimated in an interview with Sky.
Source: DN
