“I need ammunition, not a ride” — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refusing the US’s offer to get him out of Kyiv.
This is the largest attack in Europe since World War II. But by invading a sovereign country in a move reminiscent of the 1939 invasion of Czechoslovakia, Putin has united most of the world against him. And Ukraine is still standing. Read more HERE.
The Nazi leader used similar tactics to dismember and devour Czechoslovakia before World War II
By Michael E. Ruane February 24, 2022 at 1:15 p.m. EST
By 1939, parts of Czechoslovakia had already been carved off and taken over by Nazi Germany, which claimed that millions of ethnic Germans were being persecuted there.
The previous September, European powers, seeking to avoid war, had acquiesced and done nothing.
But six months later, German troops were massed on the Czech border, as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler railed and threatened the country with destruction.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not bother to speak with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, before launching his assault Thursday. But some observers see brutal similarities to Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia just before World War II.
“This is all truly dictated by our national interests and dictated by care for the future of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday after the Russian assault began.
Putin on Monday claimed pro-Russian residents of Ukraine faced “genocide.”
“The killing of civilians … the abuse of people, including children, women and the elderly, continues unabated,” he said. “There is no end in sight.”
In 2014, Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, with Putin saying, “In people’s hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia.”
Before invading Ukraine this week, he first stationed at least 150,000 Russian troops along that country’s borders.
Read more HERE.