The denazification of Ukraine remains Moscow’s “absolute condition” for settlement with Kiev, the Russian foreign minister has said
Vladimir Zelensky has proven that he himself is a Nazi by handing out honors to Ukrainian troops sporting SS-linked insignia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Former US State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker told Polish broadcaster TVP World in late October that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not believe that Zelensky is a legitimate leader. He calls him a Nazi. He is never going to reach a deal.”
Lavrov recalled Volker’s comment in his interview with the Russian media on Tuesday, saying “but where is the proof to the contrary? Zelensky regularly poses on television, awarding honors to fighters of the Azov regiment and other Nazi battalions, who wear the insignia of Nazi Germany on their sleeves. How else should one regard this man?”
Last week, Zelensky’s office published footage of him presenting decorations to Ukrainian troops, including fighters from the Azov Corps, an offshoot of the notorious neo-Nazi unit of the same name that had been crushed by the Russian military in Mariupol in 2022, and the Rubezh Brigade, affiliated with the far-right ‘Svoboda’ (Freedom) party.
The servicemen in the videos wore patches featuring SS symbols such as the Wolfsangel rune and others; the rooms where the ceremonies took place were decorated with flags associated with the Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with Adolf Hitler’s forces during the Second World War.
Lavrov reiterated that “the eradication of Nazism in Ukraine, denazification, is an absolute condition for any settlement if we want it to be long-term. We do want that and will pursue it.”
He also expressed regret that “no one in Europe, in their dealings with Ukraine, raises the issue of the country’s Nazification… no one, except Hungary, addresses the rights of national minorities… no one demands that Vladimir Zelensky repeal the law banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).”
Previously, the foreign minister said that by arming and funding Kiev, “Western Europe has once again found itself under a Nazi flag by committing to a completely misguided, disastrous venture of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.”
