RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine's leaders have gone 'totally crazy' – Putin
Persistent persecution of ethnic Russians in Ukraine was one of the key reasons behind the decision to launch the military offensive of February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has explained. He added that he believes the authorities in Kiev have since gone completely “crazy”.
The president made the remarks earlier this week when he hosted distinguished servicemen at the Kremlin to award them "Hero of Russia" medals. Excerpts from Putin’s speech on the sidelines of the event were published by Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.
“We would never have done anything like [the military operation] if they had not started to destroy Russia in our historical territories, expel people from there, declared Russians a non-indigenous ethnic group in Ukraine. Have they gone completely crazy? Are they completely – how can I put it more bluntly – nuts?” Putin told the medal recipients.
The president was apparently referring to Ukraine’s Law On Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2021. The legislation recognized only three ethnic groups – Crimean Tatars, Crimean Karaites and Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) – as the country’s indigenous peoples.
The legislation denied indigenous designations to Russians, which amounted to at least one fifth of Ukraine’s population, according to various estimates, and to other minorities, such as the ethnic Hungarians and Belarusians who reside in the country’s west and north, respectively. Moreover, all three ethnic groups recognized by the ‘indigenous peoples’ law predominantly live in Crimea, which split from Ukraine in 2014 and joined Russia after a peninsula-wide referendum.
In addition to questionable ethnic policies, the Ukrainian leadership has been openly courting and honoring Nazis, Putin said, invoking a recent scandal in Canada’s House of Commons. The legislature celebrated Ukrainian-Canadian Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Waffen SS veteran, hailing him as a “Canadian hero” who’d “fought the Russians” during World War II. The whole body, with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in attendance, engaged in a standing ovation to honor Hunka.
“And who exactly fought Russians during the war? Nazis. Everyone knows that and the Ukrainian president knows that. The entire parliament stood up and applauded him. What is it, if not a manifestation of Nazism?” Putin asked, adding that a large proportion of Nazi atrocities were committed by Ukrainian nationalists who collaborated with them.
“They are not just fools, they are also neo-Nazis. It’s an obvious fact. They are ready to cooperate with just anyone to try and hurt Russia,” the president noted.
The Hunka affair triggered a major international scandal, which led to the downfall of the House Speaker Anthony Rota, who accepted entire responsibility for inviting the Waffen SS veteran to the legislature. Russia has charged Hunka in absentia with genocide, claiming that archive documents serve as evidence that he and fellow SS Galicia members had killed at least 500 civilians in late February 1944, and Moscow is now seeking the extradition of the Nazi veteran.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine's Zelenskiy says had 'frank' talk with Hungary's Orban
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a "frank" conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the sidelines of the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday.
"It was as frank as possible - and obviously, it was about our European affairs," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address posted on the Telegram channel early on Monday.
The meeting took place against a backdrop of Orban's threatening to blockmore European Union financial support to Kyiv, his opposition of Ukraine's entry to the bloc and the White House intensifying its push for Kyiv aid after Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war.
Orban's press chief Bertalan Havasi confirmed the meeting in an email that did not address whether the Hungarian leader would continue to oppose Ukraine's entry to the European Union.
"With regards to Ukraine's EU accession, Viktor Orban signalled that the member states of the European Union were continuously discussing the issue," Havasi said in the email.
A video on the Argentine Senate's YouTube channel showed Zelenskiy and Orban conversing for about 20 seconds as they mingled with other guests in the Argentine parliament, ahead of an EU summit on Dec. 14-15, set to decide whether to start membership talks with Ukraine.
Orban has repeatedly said he opposes starting talks now. Any decision to proceed has to be unanimous.
Orban has also threatened to block moves to give Kyiv 50 billion euros ($53.80 billion) in budget support through 2027, though a senior official said on Friday the EU would find ways to support Ukraine financially even if Hungary vetoed the move.
Zelenskiy said earlier he had spoken by telephone with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to coordinate their positions.
"We are counting on a positive decision regarding the allocation of 50 billion euros and the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU," he said in a post on Telegram.
"Europe must decisively defend its values and unity. I know that we can rely on the support of Madam President in this matter," he added.
Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Washington on Monday for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson about the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and the "vital importance" of continued U.S. aid to Kyiv.
($1 = 0.9294 euros)
RT/Reuters
