This Wednesday, March 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on “Jews everywhere not to remain silent”, as the Russian army advances on Kiev and intensifies its bombardments overnight.
In a video posted this morning, the head of state accused Moscow of wanting to “erase” Ukraine and its history. He called on “Jews all over the world” not to “remain silent”, following the Russian bombings which hit national television, adjoining the site of Babi Yar (Kiev), the site of the largest Holocaust massacre in Ukraine.
Nearly 34,000 Jews were shot to death by the Nazis and their accomplices at this site on September 29-30, 1941. President Zelensky explained that the Russian military “has orders to erase our history, to erase our country, to erase us all,” in his video message.
Duty of memory
By calling on “Jews all over the world”, Volodymyr Zelensky, himself of the Jewish faith, warns of the turn of the current armed conflict and refers to the Second World War, during which between 5 and 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis.
“Nazism was born in silence. Scream that civilians are being killed. Shout that Ukrainians are being murdered,” the Ukrainian president addressed “Jews all over the world.”
In his request sent to the International Court of Justice in The Hague sent last Sunday, the Ukrainian head of state already accused Russia “to plan acts of genocide”.
Enemy cartoon
As soon as the Russian army invaded Ukraine last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin was aped as Hitler’s “little soldier”. Ukraine’s official Twitter account noted under the tweet that “this is not a meme”. [parodie d’une personnalité censée être drôle]but our and your reality”.
pic.twitter.com/IaqFbpayqz
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 24, 2022
If the informative dimension takes another turn in wartime and gives way to propaganda, using Hitler’s image for the comparison with Vladimir Putin refers to the latter’s declarations.
Since the start of the conflict, Vladimir Putin has evoked a “denazification” of Ukraine, recalling the collaborationist past of certain Ukrainians, while the Military Organization of Ukraine (UVO), made up of nationalists in the 1930s, had collaborated with Nazi Germany.
The Russian president also claimed Volodymyr Zelensky to be a “neo-Nazi”, to justify his military intervention in Ukraine.
