Vladimir Putin rallies Russians to repel ‘Nazi’ tanks again
President Vladimir Putin has vowed that Russia will emerge victorious in the war in Ukraine, comparing the delivery of German tanks to Kyiv with Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
President Vladimir Putin has vowed that Russia will emerge victorious in the war in Ukraine, while hinting that it could use nuclear weapons and comparing the delivery of German tanks to Kyiv with Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
“It’s unbelievable but true,” Mr Putin said on Thursday. “We are once again being threatened by German Leopard tanks with crosses on them. And again they are going to fight Russia on Ukrainian soil through the last followers of Hitler.
“Unfortunately we see that the ideology of Nazism in its modern form and manifestation again directly threatens the security of our country.”
The Russian leader was speaking during a visit to Volgograd to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi forces in the city, then known as Stalingrad. The Kremlin has falsely claimed that Ukraine is ruled by a “neo-Nazi” government.
“Those who are counting on achieving victory over Russia on the battlefield do not understand that a modern war with Russia for them will be completely different,” Mr Putin told an audience of army officers and pro-Kremlin activists. “We have something to respond with, and it won’t be limited to the use of armoured vehicles. Everyone must understand this.”
When asked to clarify Mr Putin’s comments, the Kremlin said Russia would “use its existing potential more fully” to respond to the supply of Western weapons such as Germany’s Leopard 2 tanks. Russian officials have warned on several occasions that the supply of Western weapons, including American, British and German tanks, risks starting a nuclear conflict.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Tuesday that Western countries should ignore Mr Putin’s nuclear threats.
Moscow has often sought to draw direct parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and World War II. Critics have noted that the Kremlin’s pro-war Z symbol was used by Nazi forces as they attempted to conquer the Soviet Union.
Mr Putin’s comments came amid fears that Russia is preparing a new attempt to seize Kyiv to coincide with the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
“We think they will try something around February 24,” Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrainian Defence Minister, told French television. Officials in Kyiv believe Russia has deployed about half a million troops, far more than the 300,000 that Moscow says it has mobilised.
Before his speech, Mr Putin visited the vast Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex built to honour the Soviet soldiers who died during five months of fierce fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest of World War II. He laid flowers by a huge Soviet statue called The Motherland Calls, a winged female figure with a giant sword.
More than a million Soviet soldiers were killed in the battle from August 1942 to February 1943, which ended with a crushing defeat for Nazi Germany. The city was reduced to rubble but rebuilt after the war. Mr Putin’s visit to Volgograd came after officials unveiled a new bust to Joseph Stalin, the former Soviet dictator, in the centre of the city, which was officially renamed Stalingrad for the duration of anniversary celebrations. Street signs were changed and officials referred to Stalingrad, rather than Volgograd. Russian nationalists have urged the Kremlin to make the name change permanent. However, only 26 per cent of local residents are in favour of the idea and 67 per cent are against it, according to the state-owned pollster Vtsiom this week.
Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said the poll proved that talk of a new cult of Stalin was exaggerated. He also suggested that the poll had been released by Kremlin officials eager to prevent Russia from “running down a road that leads to hell”.
The reputation of Stalin, once almost a taboo figure, has been rehabilitated since Mr Putin, a former KGB officer, came to power 23 years ago. Officials have urged Russians to focus on Stalin’s wartime leadership rather than the deaths of millions in gulag labour camps during his bloody 29-year reign.
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