24th February, 2022
Russia has given a bizarre reason for its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, while also confirming it’s a full scale war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia started the military operation in Ukraine in order to clear the country of Nazis.
“Ideally, it is necessary to liberate Ukraine, clear it of Nazis, as well as pro-Nazi people and ideology”, Peskov told reporters, when asked about how denazification should be interpreted.
Peskov did not elaborate on whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is considered a “pro-Nazi” person.
He declined to elaborate further: “I will refrain from any other explanations on the matter”, he said.
The Kremlin spokesman also said that the goals of the special operation – the demilitarisation and the denazification of Ukraine – were explained by President Vladimir Putin during his televised address earlier today.
The Nazis were members of The Nazi Party in Germany that rose to prominence in the 1920’s, led by Adolf Hitler.
The term is a shortened word for Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), an extreme right wing German political party.
It was not clear why Peskov was referring to Ukrainians as Nazis.
President Vladimir Putin authorised “a special military operation” against Ukraine on Thursday morning to eliminate what he called a serious threat, saying his aim was to demilitarise Russia’s southern neighbour.
In an early morning address on state television, Putin said he had been left with no choice but to launch the operation, the scope of which was not immediately clear but appeared to go well beyond helping Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“I have decided to conduct a special military operation,” said Putin, seated at a desk in the Kremlin next to a battery of telephones, with the Russian flag behind him.
“Its goal is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide… for the last eight years. And for this we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.
“And to bring to court those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens of the Russian Federation.”
Ukraine dismissed as invented Russian accusations of genocide against people living in parts of its east seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014. Kyiv has said Putin was looking for an artificial pretext to attack it.
The Kremlin chief’s announcement followed an appeal from the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine for military help against what they said was growing Ukrainian aggression.