The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian, Volodímir Zelenski, invoked this Monday the fight against Nazism while his troops fight on the day that commemorates the triumph against Nazi Germany.
Almost two and a half months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, Both leaders had a very different staging to evoke the triumph over the Nazis, on May 9, 1945.
(Also read: Putin refers to the invasion in Ukraine during Victory Day)
Zelensky’s speech
Zelensky recorded his speech on a kyiv street, against the background of a barricade, to compare the Russian offensive with the Nazi one. There he stated that Ukraine will not let Russia “appropriate the victory over Nazism.”
“Today we celebrate Victory Over Nazism Day. And we will not give anyone a piece of our history. We are proud of our ancestors who, together with other nations of the anti-Hitler coalition, defeated Nazism. And not we will allow no one to claim this victory,” the Ukrainian leader said.
On the day of victory over the Nazis, we are fighting for another victory
Zelensky listed several cities in eastern and southern Ukraine currently under the control of the invading Russian forces, saying that the Ukrainians during the Second World War had expelled the forces of Nazi Germany from these regions.
“Our enemy dreamed that we would refuse to celebrate May 9 and the victory over Nazism. That the word “denazification” (a term used by Putin to justify his invasion of Ukraine) would have a chance (…). Millions of Ukrainians fought against Nazism (…) and on Victory Over Nazism Day, we fight for a new victory“, he added.
“The road to this victory is long but we have no doubts about our victory. We win then, we win now“, he added, referring to the Russian invasion of his country that began on February 24.
(You may be interested: The cross versions of what Russia can do this Monday in Ukraine)
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Zelensky recalled that his country has gone through different wars but no enemy managed to stay in Ukraine and take root because, he assured, there is no invader who can rule the free Ukrainian people.
He recalled that, as happened in World War II, when the Ukrainians fought for their freedom and won, now “we are fighting for our freedom, for the freedom of our children” and “we will win.”
(If you read us from the EL TIEMPO app, see this publication here).
Putin defends attacks in Ukraine
For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not formally declare war on Ukraine on Monday, as feared in kyiv, but he did defend the military campaign to defeat “Nazism” and guarantee the security of Russia in the face of the “threat” of NATO, on the occasion of Victory Day over Nazi Germany.
“The defense of the homeland was always sacred. Now, in our days, you fight for our people in Donbas, for the security of our homeland, Russia,” he said during the traditional military parade in Red Square.
(Also: Jill Biden, Justin Trudeau and singer Bono, in Ukraine)
Putin, who addressed the 11,000 soldiers concentrated in front of Lenin’s mausoleum, including soldiers who had recently arrived from the front in Ukraine, stressed that his “duty” is “to do everything possible so that the horror of a war does not repeat itself. world”.
Of course, he did not declare the general mobilization among the Russians, an option that was being considered due to the lack of progress on the battlefield, nor did he reveal Russian plans for the coming weeks of war.
Although he did not allude to the progress of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, where the Russian Army has been unable to “liberate” Donbas in two and a half months of fighting, he did. blamed NATO for forcing a “preemptive” attack to prevent an alleged “aggression” against its historic territories in eastern Ukraine.
“The danger was growing every day. Russia made a preventive response, it was a necessary measure and the only possible one in this situation. It was a decision of a sovereign, strong and independent country,” he proclaimed.
He recalled that Moscow, which accuses NATO of turning Ukraine into a platform to contain Russia, proposed to the West at the end of 2021 “to close an agreement on security guarantees”.
“All in vain. The NATO countries did not want to listen to us, which meant that in fact they had completely different plans and we saw them,” he said.
(Keep reading: Ukraine: Zelensky and G7 to meet to discuss Ukraine)
Those plans would take the form of “a punitive operation in Donbas, an invasion of our historical territories, including Crimea”, so that the confrontation with “the neo-Nazis” would be “inevitable”.
“In this way, an intolerable threat was being systematically created for us directly at our borders,” he said.
During his speech, Putin insisted that Russian soldiers and militiamen from the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, whose independence has been recognized by the Kremlin, “fight together on their own land”, where, he recalled, the Russians fight against the invader, be they Tartars, Ottomans or Nazis, for hundreds of years.
Putin asked to observe a minute of silence for those who fell in the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), as World War II is known in this country, but also for the children, women and elderly who have died in the “barbarous attacks” of the “neo-Nazis”.
“Denazification” is one of the arguments that Putin used to launch the “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, a country led since 2019 by a president of Jewish origin, Volodímir Zelensky.
And he warned that the Kremlin will never humiliate itself before the US or renounce its “traditional values” or accept the “falsification” of history, as its European satellites have done, since “Russia has a different character.”
“Loyalty to the motherland is our main value, the solid pillar of Russia’s independence,” he said.
Russian attacks continue
Putin acknowledged the pain caused by the casualties in the ranks of the Russian Army during the armed intervention in Ukraine, a stagnant figure of 1,351 dead for a month and a half.
He did not insist on the need to “minimize” casualties, which he admitted at the time slows down the Russian advance, but he did announce the signing of a decree to help the children of those killed in action.
Nor did he allude to the conquest of the port city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, where an undetermined number of fighters from the Azov Battalion are still holed up in the Azovstal steelworks.
And although Pope Francis had stated that the end of the war could come on May 9, Russian attacks continued in the territory.
Russian troops resumed the assault on the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol after a UN convoy left the Donetsk region, Ukrainian sources said.
“They tried to destroy the bridge, which was the gate for evacuation. Without success,” Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, told Telegram.
Svyatoslav Palamar (“Kalina”), deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, which defends the steel facility, told Channel 24 that the situation is critical for the wounded soldiers due to lack of medicine.
Ukraine and the West fear that the Russian Army is not satisfied with opening a land corridor between Donbas and the annexed Crimean peninsula, but rather intends to conquer all of southern Ukraine, including Odessa, and leave the neighboring country without access to the sea.
EFE and AFP
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