Nancy Pelosi compares Putin to Hitler
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has compared Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republics (LPR) – which the US considers to be part of Ukraine – to Adolf Hitler’s policy of German expansion.
“This is a very evil move on the part of Vladimir Putin,” said Pelosi in a speech on Wednesday, describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a KGB guy who happens to be probably the richest man in the world because of his exploitation of his own people.”
"This is a Sudetenland" -- Pelosi on Russian aggression in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/5MLYhXZmLb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2022
“Every time you hear him say, ‘Well, they’re part of us, that’s who we are, they should be us.’ Now they’re saying, ‘We have to go in because they want to be part of NATO.’ This, my friends, is our moment,” Pelosi continued. “This is a Sudetenland and that’s what people were saying there.”
Pelosi’s mention of the Sudetenland appeared to be a reference to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s German annexation of the Sudetenland – native German-speaking regions of former Czechoslovakia – in 1938 as a result of the Munich agreement between Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy. Following the annexation, Nazi Germany went on to occupy much of the rest of Europe, including Poland – sparking World War II.
The DPR and LPR formally requested military assistance from Russia in separate letters dated Wednesday, alleging that “the military aggression of the Ukrainian regime” had been on the increase. In his letter, DPR head Denis Pushilin accused Ukraine of conducting a “genocide” of civilians in the region. In the run-up to the recognition of Donbass by Moscow, both the republics and Kiev had accused each other of intensified shelling along the contact lines, with the Ukrainian government denying it was planning to take the areas by force.
The DPR and LPR declared independence from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow initially refused to recognize the republics, becoming one of the guarantors of the 2014 and 2015 Minsk ceasefire agreements, which should have paved the way for a long-term settlement between Kiev and breakaway states.
Accusing Ukraine of failing to abide by the agreements, the Kremlin went on to declare its “long overdue” recognition of the republics this week.
