Ukraine’s Jewish President Zelenskiy asks Putin:
‘How could I be a Nazi?’
Ukrainian president calls on Russians to consider the
cost of war.
BY ZOYA
SHEFTALOVICH
February
24, 2022 10:17 am
Russian
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared war on Ukraine and pledged to
oversee a “demilitarization and de-Nazification” of the country — which is led
by a Jewish president.
Hours
before Putin’s televised address, Volodymyr Zelenskiy had delivered his own final,
powerful but ultimately fruitless plea for peace, in which he pushed back at
Putin’s unfounded accusations that Ukraine was being run by Nazis.
Addressing
the Russian public directly and in Russian, his native language, Zelenskiy
said: “The Ukraine on your news and Ukraine in real life are two completely
different countries — and the main difference between them is: Ours is real.
You are told we are Nazis. But could a people who lost more than 8 million
lives in the battle against Nazism support Nazism?”
After a
pregnant pause, Zelenskiy, who is Jewish — though he did not explicitly say
that in the video — added: “How can I be a Nazi? Explain it to my grandfather,
who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army, and died a
colonel in an independent Ukraine.”
The
Ukrainian president has said that three of his grandfather’s brothers were
killed in the Holocaust.
Zelenskiy
called on Russians to consider the cost of war and debunked Putin’s talking
points.
“What are
you fighting for and with whom?” Zelenskiy asked Russians. “Many of you have
been to Ukraine. Many of you have family in Ukraine. Some have studied in
Ukrainian universities. Some have been friends with Ukrainians. You know our
character. You know our people. You know our principles. You know what we
value. So listen to yourselves. Listen to reason.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário